1986 Starter

Asked by Terry Aug 12, 2018 at 09:21 AM about the 1986 Ford F-150 STD Standard Cab 4WD SB

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

Starter just clicks, Bought a rebuilt same thing, new solenoid same thing. Put
starter in a vise and tired using a battery same thing. If I push down on that
part that pushes out the pinon it works. I can just push a little, the pinion gear
does not even move and the starter will work. Is there some kind of voltage
increase somewhere in the wiring that gives that electromagnetic a boast to
get the gear to pop out. Tried boost 50 amp on my charger and it acted the
same way. We were trying to figure out if some of the cables to the starter
are bad is why we tested out of the truck. We bought the truck not running,
we have the distributor back in, the water pump, thermostat etc back in. We
were to  the point where we would see if it ran. LOL

1 Answer

9,720

Very common problem with that type starter, check the voltage at the starter stud on starter if it's below 12.2 check battery and cables that flipper you're pushing on goes through a field coil that needs a lot of current from the battery If you're checking on the car put pos test lead on starter stud and neg lead to a good engine ground try to crank engine check voltage if it clicks move neg test lead to battery neg terminal is the reading higher if yes it's a bad battery cable. Do youknow how to perform a voltage drop test if so you can locate the bad cable hope this helps

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