Won't Start - Need ASAP Help!!! 9/24

[Soundguy01tx]

Wouldnt Start 9/24 - Repaired!

Alright, my 1991 Explorer is making me have a bad day. Earlier today I went to start it for lunch, and it just clicked and then nothing. I thought to myself, oh no, so I try again, nothing at all this time, no click even. I pop the hood, but dont get out yet, give it one more try, it barely starts after a few cranks...

I went out again a few minutes ago, to go home, no click or anything, wont start. I pop the hood, jiggle the battery cable connections, try again, it starts up...

I being a moron, stop for dinner, and THINK to leave it on, but normal function is to turn it off, DOH! I try to start again, nothing. No cranks, no clicks, nada. I open the hood, jiggle the cables, scrape on my connections and it sparks, I try to start it, nothing at all. I try jumpin the sylonoid with a screwdriver, no go. I replace starter and alternatr less than a year ago. The light under the hood area was on, so I dont think its bad battery, but what could it be???

(Needing to get home, gonna try to jump it but have wait for someone from the office to come help.)

--Bryan

 

[Robb]

Sounds like the battery cables have corroded BADLY internally.

 

[dejello]

Just what I was thinking, ya beat me to it robb

 

[TheRookie]

Yeah, cables are probably shot. They are kinda a pain to change on the 1st gen but not by any means hard. Also Could be a battery. That engine takes an insane amount of amperage to start for some reason. WAY more than comperable motors.

 

[Soundguy01tx]

YA after takin a little time and tryin to jump it, I think its the cables too... Any ideas how to get it to start even with bad cables... I gotta get it home.. ughh..
--bryan

 

[Alec]

To get it to start with bad cables try jumping at the starter solenoid instead of battery.

 

[Robb]

If you can get your hands on some jumper cables, you COULD just bypass the postive cable by directly linking the + battery post to the sarter side of the starter solenoid briefly, with the ignition on. You could also hook the + post cable to the battery side of the solenoid, then use the ignition switch (in start position) to crank it over. (WARNING!! DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK, SHORTING OUT YOUR ENTIRE TRUCK IS A POSSIBILITY). You could probably get enough juice through the cables to keep the engine running after starting.

 

[Soundguy01tx]

got it workin, thanks... I had a friend pull his jeep around, and we jumped it... didnt work... we let it charge for about 5 minutes, tried, didnt work, so in frustration, we cranked the ignition while jiggling the cables... la de freakin da, it worked! So ya, I drove it home, and in the driveway tried to start it, no go... so yea, its goin to be worked on tomorrow... Either at a shop or by me, depending on what you guys tell me... how hard is it to change the cables out? How much work/how long? How much would a shop charge prolly to do it?
--Bryan

 

[Soundguy01tx]

BTW, the friend who finally got it started was a Jeeper... Guess they arent all bad And yea, I liked his ride... 2000 Wrangler X with a 4inch susp lift and 33s... pretty nice...
--bryan

 

[88vert]

I changed both of my positive and negative cables last winter and I paid 50 bucks for both cables off of ebay and they were motorcraft cables.Negative cable was easy the positive cable kind of sucked but all together it took 1 hour

 

[Soundguy01tx]

Well, the shop wants $275 to replace all the positive and neg. battery cables... lokos like Ill be findin myself a shade tree asnd doin a lil work myself... Any advice would be appreciated...
--Bryan

 

[melsner]

I replaced my positive cable a couple weeks ago. Don't bother with the aftermarket crap; spend the money on the Ford part. The ford part comes with a new connector at the starer relay. I had a failure in this location on my 91 STX. I was going to try to run the new wire through the old sheath but Ford ran some other wire in the sheath with the positive wire and it got in the way. My late 94 (wierd console, power lock switch location in rear hatch) had three brackets to run it in. The two lower ones you can get to but the upper bracket was hard to reach through the wheel well. I ended up zip tying the new cable and sheath to the brackets. I also have some plastic cover over the battery which got in the way. I ended up having to angle to terminal so the wire is pointed towards the negative terminal. If you do not have this cover, the terminal can be installed more like the stock position.

 

[Soundguy01tx]

Got it repaired, but not without having this crazy feeling that my car was gonna die totally. The Shop wanted nearly $300 to replace poss & neg cables... I said no way, spend $30 aftermarket and did the poss myself. Negative is fine.

I also had to buy myself some new tools. Mine were missing so I guess it was time to buy some new toys. 99 peice set for $40. Thanks mom (her money).

Aslo, I stripped the thread tryin to connect the cable to the starter relay. Then tryin to back it off I snapped the terminal post off. Had to replace my starter relay too DOH! Oh well, not hard.
Its done and running now, so thats great! Ready for the drive to dallas.Thanks for all the replies, and advice. Once again, the forum saves me money!

--Bryan

 

[Mike_H]

Good to hear that you got it working. Just alittle piece of advise, replace your neg cable also. In the world of electronics electrons flow from neg to pos so replace them both and things will be all good.

BTW, how hard was it? I need to do mine also.

 

[Soundguy01tx]

it really was painless... Total of 2 hours work for me, but that included goin back to buy tools, and to buy the starter relay, and replacing that also. I would say the cables alone was maybe hour to hour and a half.
--bryan

 

[88vert]

Glad to see you got it running

 

[Mike_H]

Originally posted by Soundguy01tx
it really was painless... Total of 2 hours work for me, but that included goin back to buy tools, and to buy the starter relay, and replacing that also. I would say the cables alone was maybe hour to hour and a half.
--bryan

Cool thanks, my pos cable is still good but it looks like over the years people have cut it down in order to put a new connector on it and now there really is no slack left. Last time I took it off to clean the post I noticed that the threads are starting to strip