i have a 84 f150, 5.8L 351w
a couple days ago i pulled up to checker auto to get some belts for my truck.
when i got back in to leave my truck wouldnt start.
when i turned the key it just made a sound like the starter gear was spinning but it wasnt catching on the flywheel.
so i go back in and ask for some help.
my battery is 2 weeks old.
and i put a new solenoid on it.
i bought a new starter and it has worked fine except for today it started doing the same thing, but this time when i took it out of gear and put it back in park it started right up.
im afraid this starter is gonna go bad like the last one.
they put my old one on the tester and it immediately started smoking and everything so it was all burnt up.
any ideas on how to save my starter i have??

thanks

 

If moving the gear selector around causes it to work again, there's a good chance that the shift arm sensor on the tranny is going bad. It outputs different ohm values depending on what gear is selected, and disables the starter if it's not in park. There's a thread somewhere that lists these values, you can check them yourself with a decent ohmmeter. Just get under the truck and find the shift arm on the slushbox, right behind it(closer to tranny) will be a plastic thingy with a harness connector on it. Think it's called a MLPS or something, I'm not sure.

I doubt that would cause the starter to die, but on an 84 having a starter go bad is not that unusual. The truck is almost 25 years old.

Might want to check all your ground connections too. Those can get high resistance with corrosion and cause all sorts of wacky electrical problems, including killing the starter.

 

alright thanks,
ill look into that.
i totally expect things to go wrong on it i just dont want the same thing to happen to my new starter.
im afraid the gear isnt kicking back from the flywheel and its just burning it up

 

What are you saying, the starter keeps turning after the truck starts? Or the starter will just spin and not be turning the motor, and you have to let go of the key and engage the starter switch again and again before it engages? Or what?

 

when i turn the key the starter just spins but doesnt turn the motor.

 

Starters bad. replace it. When was the last time you replaced it and with what, a new or re manufactured? Its been known for a new (reman) to go bad in a short period of time. Ive had plenty of starters do the same thing. I dont know much about how theyre built but when took mine off and hooked it up to a battery to see what it was doing, it wasnt kicking the gear out. It just sat there and spun, got a new one and problem was solved. It could just be coincident it went bad.