New Battery, Good Alternator, Need to jump every time. Ground or Parasitic Drain?
Camel Trophy
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 3,885
Likes: 955
From: Charlotte
Wow. This brought back memories.
Over 40 years ago that was the problem with my first car, a '65 Mustang. I just loosened the terminal on the starter and scratched around a little on the mating surfaces of the cable and the starter. There was no visible corrosion, but the connection was somehow not good. Solved the problem.
Where are you measuring the 12.6 volts when not cranking? If you're getting the reading from the battery posts you might want to check downstream, at the starter perhaps. A lower reading at the starter would confirm a connection problem.
On the other hand the problem sounds like insufficient amps making it to the starter and not low voltage, which again indicates a bad connection (or two, or more). And just like with my Mustang, the connection can look fine and still be wonky.
Over 40 years ago that was the problem with my first car, a '65 Mustang. I just loosened the terminal on the starter and scratched around a little on the mating surfaces of the cable and the starter. There was no visible corrosion, but the connection was somehow not good. Solved the problem.
Where are you measuring the 12.6 volts when not cranking? If you're getting the reading from the battery posts you might want to check downstream, at the starter perhaps. A lower reading at the starter would confirm a connection problem.
On the other hand the problem sounds like insufficient amps making it to the starter and not low voltage, which again indicates a bad connection (or two, or more). And just like with my Mustang, the connection can look fine and still be wonky.
Last edited by mln01; Aug 19, 2020 at 04:56 PM.
Yep when I got my rusty but trusty 97 XD it was weak starting and I had ECU voltage faults, and I didn't even have decent voltage at the OBD2 Port. I cleaned all the battery terminals, no change, cleaned the ground to the frame (helped), cleaned both small and larger terminals on the starter (fixed slow starting), and eventually tracked the ECU issues/OBD2 low voltage down to a completely rusted ECU PCB..... Slapped in another non rusted ECU and it's ran like a champ ever since. Starter terminals looked ok, but once cleaned up it was night and day. Original starter is still in place as well.
Camel Trophy
Joined: May 2016
Posts: 3,969
Likes: 859
From: Britainistan, UK
Similar problem on mine was a bad ground (-ve to engine). It didn't look bad at all but after cleaning it up my starting problem was resolved. It was so bad the engine tried to ground via the brake cable. Got so hot it welded itself. As these vehicles get older it's always good maintenance to check ground connections and clean them up. Trust me - replacing the handbrake cable is a bugger of a job.
As a safety precaution for me I wire brushed that grounding area at the firewall, the rear grounding point on the intake manifold and wire brushed the webbed grounding strap. I also added an 8” length of 10AWG cable as an additional ground to the firewall from the coil pack’s top mount bolt.
You can’t be too careful...
1st Gear
Joined: Aug 2020
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
If you're vacationing near Philly perhaps I can help? Although that sounds like an oxymoron! A failed starter is hard to come to terms with however if you've ruled out everything else I suppose it could be a possibility. I've never seen one fail in this manner but I certainly haven't seen everything, either. Since it's been starting with a jump, what happens if you try and jump start it from a non-running car, just a second battery? Connected in parallel this would double your amps but probably still not come close to what an alternator is providing.
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Rock Crawling
Joined: Aug 2019
Posts: 427
Likes: 138
From: Boston, MA
1. Head to a local parts store and have them check your battery and alternator. Perhaps there's a bad cell in your battery and it doesn't have enough CCA to turn the engine. Could also be an issue if you're traveling in really short trips that don't provide enough time for the battery to charge back up to a level that can restart the truck.
2. If the battery and alternator are OK, check your grounds at the block and body as well as the battery terminal connections - make sure they're clean and tight.
3. If the grounds and terminal contacts are good and clean, check your starter contacts - make sure the battery is disconnected for this.
4. If issue is still present after the steps above, replace starter.
I ended up needing to replace the starter.
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J P Cook
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Jun 4, 2014 09:40 AM
