what else besides a weak battery or starter would cause hard starting on a 98 4.6??

 

is it hot restart when its hard starting, or cold start up, or both?

 

What do you mean by "Hard Starting" ? You using a Rip Cord ? That would make it hard...

You need to explain better. When doe this happen? Cold? Hot? after so many miles? Car starter? WHAT?

 

truck has a 130k.. and jsut latley its been starting realllly slow.. u put key in ignition turn forward and the starter starts to turn the motor over reallly slowly.. some times it sounds like it doesnt even want to turn over but if u hold the key forward long enough it starts to turn over faster and faster.... yet still not at any incredibley fast speed... it will turn over and not start the truck till u turn the key off and then turn it back forward to run.. then it starts to turn over a bit quicker and then it starts... it sounds like a dead battery most of the time.. i checked the voltage at the battery after letting it sit over night and voltage at the battery is 11.27 volts.. it drops to 4.something volts while it turns over very slowly.. i swapped the starter out and still same thing.. no difference. the only good thing i can say about this is the truck does start everytime.. may take a couple tries but it does start eventually and runs great.. voltage is at 14. something while it is running.. im kinda confuzzeled.. almost sound liek the battery has a dead cell or something.. where it wont hold a full charge.. its a 1 1/2 old yellow top optima.. any input would help thanx

 

sounds like a dead cell if resting voltage is 11.27 should be like 12.6

 

Batteries failing under a load as well - replace it.