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Start(er)ing Issues

colbythekid

colbythekid

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Messages
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Location
Fullerton, CA
I am having some issues with the truck starting. The truck will start up quick and easy sometimes and turn and turn others. I have not found any particular reason or time that it works better or worse.

Friday morning it fired right up. Dropped the kid off at school and drove to work. Went to grab some lunch and I barely got it started. When I went to leave it started right up. On Saturday I took the batteries in to NAPA and had them tested. Everything turned out good. I changed out the alternator to the CS144 I had laying around. The rest of the weekend the truck started right up.

Come Monday morning I loaded the kid in the truck and once again barely got her started. Drove the kid to school, about a 5 minute drive, and after dropping him off it started right up.

Would a starter start going out like this? Sporadic? Or does a start work or not work?

Thanks for the help!

Colby
 
so when it doesn't start is it turning over slower? have you tried a different PMD? do you have a fuel pressure gauge? do you have a clear tube on the IP return line?
 
When it has a problem starting it turns over very slow. Just as if you had a dead or low charged battery. I will crank it over about 10 seconds then cycle the glows and try again. Usually by the third or forth try it will catch.

I have not tried a different PMD. I have an extra I can put on.

I do not have a fuel pressure gauge or clear fuel line on it.
 
Am leaning toward the starter and possibly a glow plug (or more). Naturally this does not eliminate cabling (or grounds) as it may play into the scenario as well.

Also, I'd more actively watch the dash voltage gauge to see whether it 'wags' while driving around; if so, I'd adjust the focus to include the charging system.
 
I checked all the grounds I could. Had to download the excel sheet that is floating around on this site. All tested good. I'll take in the old alternator I just removed in for testing after work. The 'new' alternator reads 14v even with both front and rear ACs on high and the lights on.
 
Park it in a easy to work on spot till you have fixed the problem. Every time you shut it off you risk having to replace the starter before going again or hook time. Been there done that long ago...

Random slow spinning is starter or wires. It could be something binding up or coolant getting into a cylinder. Vac pump locking up? I would start with electrical.

Batteries tested ok so look at grounds to the engine, positive connections, and cables. You can check for 9v at the starter ign connection and 11v at the big battery lug, min V while cranking. Make sure the connections are not loose.

If this all checks good I would check oil condition and coolant levels then replace the starter with a Powermaster.

Starters have 2 separate current paths that one brush, arching, or burnt/shorted part can kill. So you get 1/2 power from a bad starter. Spins slow and unlike a spark engine that can start slowly spinning diesels generally don't start well or at all when spun slow. I have had the commutator the brushes ride on slip a chunk out and spin slow till the brush wires all melted off.
 
Slow spin is only time it's hard start so I'm not blaming anything except starter or cables. You disconnected and reconnected batteries so call those contacts ok. Pull and clean battery cables at the other ends. What is your current ground path from battery to starter?- Check that.

Beyond that blame the starter. AK did a rebuild your starter thread here a while back-find that if you need to. Pull the starter and check it out. Even my local true value carries brushes...

Otherwise if you can afford it powermaster 9052. (Is Leroy selling these yet? Shipping might kill it). You won't believe how easily it starts your truck. Then you could rebuild your old one for a rainy day.
 
WarWagon said:
Random slow spinning is starter or wires. It could be something binding up or coolant getting into a cylinder. Vac pump locking up? I would start with electrical.
Click to expand...

I changed the oil last night and it looked like oil. No coolant in it. I have an ATT so no Vac Pump.

While I was waiting on the oil to drain I took a look at the starter to see if it was coated in oil or something else that might be causing a bad connection. Except for being old it was surprisingly clean. From my view under the truck looking up all I could see was one wire connection, but it was clean.

When I pull the starter is there a way to see if a brush / armature or anything else is truly bad on it?

Thank you guys.
 
JayTheCPA said:
Am leaning toward the starter and possibly a glow plug (or more). Naturally this does not eliminate cabling (or grounds) as it may play into the scenario as well.

Also, I'd more actively watch the dash voltage gauge to see whether it 'wags' while driving around; if so, I'd adjust the focus to include the charging system.
Click to expand...

We changed all injectors and glows when this truck was acquired in 2013. It does not get heavy usage.
 
colbythekid said:
I changed the oil last night and it looked like oil. No coolant in it. I have an ATT so no Vac Pump.

While I was waiting on the oil to drain I took a look at the starter to see if it was coated in oil or something else that might be causing a bad connection. Except for being old it was surprisingly clean. From my view under the truck looking up all I could see was one wire connection, but it was clean.

When I pull the starter is there a way to see if a brush / armature or anything else is truly bad on it?

Thank you guys.
Click to expand...

You may or may not "see" the issue. Worn brushes would be clear, but, not sticking brushes. Arching and opens in the field or armature takes skill and tools to find.

Swap out starter with a good one. Be warned that new parts esp. reman parts don't mean good parts.

This starter had a bad ground connection on the top right of the brush plate - see the heat marks?

bad starter2.jpg
 
WarWagon said:
You may or may not "see" the issue. Worn brushes would be clear, but, not sticking brushes. Arching and opens in the field or armature takes skill and tools to find.

Swap out starter with a good one. Be warned that new parts esp. reman parts don't mean good parts.

This starter had a bad ground connection on the top right of the brush plate - see the heat marks?

View attachment 47619
Click to expand...

I'm headed home now to pull the starter. I'll see what I have after its out. Thanks for the help. Hope it's something obvious!!
 
I'll finish this up for Colby. He got the new starter installed yesterday and it's working properly. He said that the install was complicated by the weight of starter and the need to connect heavy cable from a specific direction.

He is scheduled today to take a trip with the Suburban to the Missoula, MT area. His wife and son will fly to Salt Lake where he'll pick them up and continue on to MT.

Hoping he has no issues with the Suburban, especially after the recent overheats. I did install the new Hayden fan clutch, but passed on installing the 180 T-Stat as what I had were old. Cooling system did not have air in it, nor oil, and oil did not have coolant in it. I did give him one of the 180 T-stats just in case; the other was cracked and I threw it out. He'll be facing cool weather. I told him to call me if he has any issues.
 
I guess Colby and his shotgun drove all night because they're arriving in Salt Lake now. He said, coolant temps are fine, but they need the heat to keep warm. The HID healights are getting rave reviews. Said he had the Hi on in the Virgin River Gorge and they lit it up for miles. They're getting a bit of snow, but that should clear up today.

Talked with my wife and she left Reno this AM. Headed up through Winnemucca, NV then a route through eastern Oregon into Nampa, ID and will stop in Grange ID tonight. Will meet up with the others in the Missoula area on Sunday. Wish I was there because the Skwala hatch is going off.
 

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Colby and the '94 made it home safely. Everything performed flawlessly. This engine has 275K miles and slurps a quart of oil every 600 miles, but it runs well and keeps on going.

The HID headlights I gave and installed for his Birthday got rave reviews, but it wasn't hard to beat the old fogged over OEM headlights.
 
Try some mobil 1 15w40 oil. I've got an old kohler on a zero turn mower that would burn a quart of 10w30 castrol every 2 hours running, switched to 15w40 rotella and it dropped to just under a 1/2 quart every 2-3 hours, had some mobil 1 15w40 given to me, so I tried it, and ran ALL last season on it(about 30 hours), and didn't add a drop to it.
It's a chrome bore 25hp that got overheated when the fan got covered with leaves. Left it with some NASTY scoring in the chrome on cylinder #2. It really should be sleeved, but if running mobil 1 keeps it from burning oil, then I'm good with that. Runs weak at idle with only 60 lbs compression(the other one has 165), but pulls great under load at 3800.
 
So you're suggesting Mobil 1 Synthetic in 15w40? I can find Mobil 1 in 5w40 and 15w50. Have never seen 15w40. I'm running Delo Synthetic 5w40 in mine. His blow by is a continuous stream when you pull the dipstick.

We've been running Delo 400 15w40 because it's cheap and we assumed it would just consume it anyway. It was a known condition when we bought the truck and here we are 35K miles later. Figured if we got 300K miles out of it, it was a home run. Then we have the engine out of the '95 wreck which has 185K miles on it, slight blow by and that consumed a quart every 2K miles. We'd probably install gapless rings on that one.
 
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