Hey all,

I have a 1994 F-150 5.0 L 302 and I can't get it to start.

Worked fine this morning, then this afternoon when I cranked it all I would get was a click. Four tries later and it started up fine. Now tonight all I am getting is the click of the solenoid throwing.

My battery seems to check out fine (12.85 V and 11.5V under load), just to be sure I tried to jumpstart the battery - no luck. Solenoid on the fender wall is only a couple months old, jumped it anyway, still nothing.

My dash shows a lower than average battery voltage though. Approx. around the 8 volt mark. Yet my battery checked out fine when I threw my voltmeter across the posts.

Bad connection? Bad ground? Something else?

Is there anyway I can get it started just so I can get it home to my driveway to pull it apart? Would jumping the battery directly to the starter do it?

Please help!

 

The power for the truck comes of the positive side of the starter, I would check voltage drop at the starters solinoid post first. Easy check to do.You should loose no more than .5 volts to any connection.

 

**Update**

yesterday - Checked the solenoid posts and sure enough I was losing more than 6 volts across the positive lead (Thanks Mugsy). Jumped a cable straight from the battery to the starter solenoid and she cranked no problem.

Just pulled the wiring harness out this morning...that took some patience. Stupid thing is bolted to the block just past the negative chassis ground.

On my way to ford this morning to see if they have it.

 

Good glad you found it, And glad your looking for a oem cable, the aftermarket ones are really poor quailty, I make my own cables, terminals from granger and cable from a local welding supply!

 

Truck is back in working order and starts beautifully.

Only problem is that the battery gauge on the dash still shows only about 10 volts. When i check all my connections with my multimeter i have 12 volts + all the way around (battery and both solenoids). The gauge does jump up to 14 volts once the motor starts and its charging, but I can't figure out why the gauge still shows 10 volts when I first turn the key.

This isn't a big problem as everything seems to be working great, but I'd like to get it fixed if possible.

Any thoughts?

P.S. Prior to this problem the gauge worked fine

 

Still would be looking for a ground issue, or your gauge is on the way out itself. I've had one go bad. Not a big deal to pull apart the cluster and check it out.



And just to clear up confusion, the fender mounted relay does not crank the starter.

Adrianspeeder