Went to start my truck and all of a sudden this metallic popcorn noise starts. My alternator has been acting up and making a noise in the morning when I first drive in sounds like a got a blower under the hood. But anyway's when I started the truckthe niose came on so I shut the truck off but the starter kept on going. I tried to pull the battery cable off fast but couldn't get it off in time and the starter stop and I could smell something burning from inside the cab. So as of now instead of catchin some largemouth tonight like I planned I go to replace the starter. Has anyone else had this problem, any input would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

I didn't realize thi was such a popular problem... This just happened to me last month on my 1986 fullsize 5.0 bronco.

I thought my ignition was gone bad, but someone told me that the floor switch for the brights can short out, and that is what shorted my starter... now it sounds crazy to me, but i guess this guy had it happen to his and a bunch of people he knew, so I thought what the hell, it can't hurt, so I unplugged it and put in a new starter (because it burned out my old one) and it's been good as new since, just I hadn't had any headlights until I routed the wires to a new switch.

Now that I think of it, if your speaking of a 1997... I don't believe they have floor mounted bright switches... so it will be interesting to hear what caused your problem... maybe the ignition, or the solenoid? Let us know.

Sorry I couldn't help more.

 

Check the fuses under the hood. I blew a 50 amp fuse once while starting my truck. All that because a wire shorted on one of the gauges in the pod I had at the time.