When the key is turned, it won't start and makes a constant clicking noise, all the gages go up or to high/full, then back to normal, radio works fine.

What is going on?

 

Hey, is the clicking a relay under the left side of the hood or from the soleniod on the starter? My power wire corroded right trough where the wire goes into the connector on the starter, I heard of this more than once on this forum. Your starter could just be finished to. start at the basics though and check battery voltage, and a load test if you can get a load tester, pretty cheap at the auto store. Good luck

 

You might wanna try to get a jump or charge battery my gages would do that last winter for about a week right before battery was toast, changed battery out and gages were back to normal..

 

Yeah, the only time my gauges did that (twice) my alternator was toast. Could be the batt, bad connections... start with the connections, positive, ground, all of it. eliminate those then pull the battery and starter out and have them tested at an auto parts store for free. I know autozone does it here. Should be one of those. If you need to know how just ask, its easy and only takes about 10 minutes to pull the alt and battery and only requires a few tools

 

I just traded off my 01 this July 07 and december 06 I had that happen to a different extent. I would get in the truck and turn the key, the gauges would do a sweep and the compass would be reset, then some times it was slow to start. All my cable connections were tight to the batteries and all connections inbetween...test was fine on the battery and alternator. It was the stock battery 5 years old. The auto parts store couldn't believe that was the original battery.

I bought a new battery anyway and problem solved! Problem remaining was why ford uses the most expensive battery sold at the parts stores!!??!!

 

Weak battery.

 

NCLisa:
sounds like you need to get a jump start from someone. When you get your truck started, go down to the local Auto Zone, Advance Auto parts and get your battery tested. sounds like the battery may be dying. Also you may want to look for corrosion around the battery terminals. ***CAUTION*** If you do find white powdery, or green looking stuff all over those wires, that stuff is corrosion. This stuff will eat your clothes.
Hope this helps.

 

Thanks eveyone. I know absolutely nothing about vehicles. My biggest problem now is trying to jump the truck. House rule is that the truck which is used twice a week to haul the horse trailer, be backed into the the parking area in the driveway. Lazy teenage daughter didn't feel like backing the trailer up, so now the truck is blocked in with the trailer behind it. UGH!

I've owned the truck for 4 years, and don't think I've replaced the battery.

 

I would suggest getting a new battery first before even trying to jump the truck... it might cause the battery to explode or damage to the truck's ECU or electrical system.

Best thing to do is to get a battery. Besides, it is old... very old. It'd be wise to swap the battery.

 

Concur. Go get a new battery and find someone that knows what they are doing to change it for you and clean the terminals.

 

It is not the battery. Battery was replaced this morning, the truck still won't start. It makes a clicking noise, but the lights, radio and everything works. The dials don't shoot up anymore. Is it the starter?

 

You've probably fixed it by now but, as mentioned above, the battery cable to the starter is often the problem. Mine appeared fine until I actually crawled under to drop the starter for a checkup. When I tried to bend the cable slightly to get a socket on the terminal bolt, the cable fell off completely. The bulk of the corrosion was just inside the cable jacket far enough that it was not readily visble. All the other syptoms were identical to yours. ( except the trailer )

Dave

 

I'm not sure if it would click without a ground, but make sure there's no dangling wires hanging from your starter, those larger ground wires are easily corroded.

Is it a fast click or a single click?

 

# 3 Those 3 wires get correded - BUT the one that causes problems the majority of the time is the smaller post wire on the starter itself.

 

I have the same thing happening '99 F150. I get just a single click. I just finished replacing the starter and it came back again.