My truck won't start

[sublimer]

Okay, you were right...jumped myself and she's beautiful now!!! She purrs and it just smells so good too

I've always had a understanding of how cars work, but never truly worked on them like this before, so I must admit, I got a rush when she started right up!

[70_F100]

GREAT!!

Now, just put a trickle charger on the battery and leave it for a few days in low-charge mode to build the battery up to full capacity.

If that doesn't do the trick, you need to be looking at a new battery.

[sublimer]

I bought a new alternator and I'll put that on when the weather is a little nicer, then I'll go on a drive and let it charge up some too since I don't have a trickle charger.

I went ahead and bought new battery cables too since I cracked the head on the old one for the + terminal while installing the starter.

Thanks for your help! Much appreciated.

[70_F100]

Spend the $20-$30 bucks for a trickle charger.

It takes forever for an alternator to recharge a dead/weak battery, and puts quite a load on your electrical system.

[sublimer]

I guess I can pick one of those up soon. Wouldn't hurt to have around since I'll keep the truck parked most of the winter.

Look how worn the teeth are on the gear that catches the flywheel in the starter I just replaced

[70_F100]

There's a good chance that your flywheel ring gear looks a lot like that.

I hope you checked it while you had the starter off!!

[sublimer]

I did take a look at the 6" section that was exposed and to be honest, nothing looked wrong with it. Maybe some light wear, but I spent a little time cleaning the gunk around the opening, being sure not to get any inside the flywheel and during this time I was checking it out. I would assume the gear on the starter would be a softer metal than that of the flywheel to help prevent that from happening.

And if you also think about it, the starter gear makes contact a lot more than the flywheel ring gear due to the gear ratio.

[Thunderfoot]

Note: Please keep to just one topic on the same issue so as to keep from having multiple answers in multiple posts... I merged these two topics together so as to follow along with the progress and diagnosis...

I too believe that your battery was part of the issue... do also be sure to clean the mounting surface of the Starter Solenoid (un-bolt from fender and clean rust off - re-bolt back on) this Solenoid has to have a good ground connection with the fender and the fender (cab) has to have a good ground connection (wire to block from firewall) to work properly.

FYI that is a Relay for the Horn that is mounted in front of the Starter Solenoid, not the Voltage Regulator in this pic https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/c ... directlink The Voltage Regulator is mounted on the engine side of the Radiator Support on the Passenger side.