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greatwhite
04-23-2014, 03:48
Truck died while driving today.

Of course, I'm on a long trip again. It's just the love/hate this truck and I have. It loves to hate on me at the worst possible times.

It fishbit once on the highway and my antennae went up. Kicked a couple more times and I dove for the next off ramp. Died completely halfway down. Fiddled around a bit with some obvious things, no start. Swapped the spare pmd in, no start. Cracked #1 injector line off. No fuel. Starter is cranking slow, but its been getting slower over the week so I just figured it was on the way out.

Getting despondent, I hit the starter again and the truck starts. I make immediate plans to get somewhere where I can do more intense work on it. Truck sees the glimmer of hope in my eye and decides it won't allow me to have hope. It stalls out again. This time it is resolute: it will not start. Batteries are nearly drained now anyways.

So, I have it flatbedded to my moms house an hour away. There goes 150 bucks.

Getting dark now, so not a lot of time.

Crack off #1 again. No fuel.
Fuses - check
Pmd - check
PMD harness - check (metered)
PMD voltages - check
Lift pump pressure - check, 10 psi (good ol' raptor 100)
Fuel at air bleed - check
Fuel at T drain -check
ESO solenoid opening -check
DTC's - none
Return fuel - check
Battery cables -check
Grounds -check
Disconnect OS - no change
Disconnect CPS - no change
OS filter - 1998 so there is none
Try a light fog of WD 40 at intake - not even a kick, but it is turning slow.

Now I'm really confused. Its got fuel to the IP, its not getting to the injectors. I meter the FSO and get continuity. At least the windings are intact. I start fretting about buying another $1500 DS4.......

Getting baffled, I hook up the jumper cables and give it a shot on the remote start so I can watch #1 injector line again. It runs the glow cycle and then: nothing. No crank. WTF? Does its second start cycle. Nothing. Double WTF? On the third I grab a wrench and whack the starter (was trying to get it to turn, but it felt good to whack the damned truck with something heavy!). I now get a slow crank like a bad starter.

Hmmmm......

I jump in the truck and use the ign key. No start, not even a click. Everything else is working, just no starter. Wife turns the key and I whack the starter which gets us a slow crank. Outside again, remote start and nothing. Second time whack the starter and slow turns.

So I grab a screwdriver and cross the terminals. Nothing. Not even a spark. I whack it with a wrench while holding the screwdriver and it gives a spark and graunch (lost contact as I pulled the screwdriver out). Try the screwdriver again without the whack and nothing.

A bad starter seems obvious here, but stall the truck? I can't think of any possible way for it to cause a stall and no start condition.

Light fading, I do an internet search and reveal a few old and cryptic posts. One from Missy GW about using a ford solenoid to offload the high amperage draw from the small guage starter signal wire and another about some gent who had his truck stall dead out from the same wire to the solenoid that went dead open.

Scratching my head over this one. Never heard of a starter stalling a running engine. Unless its making some weird fault to ground issue or perhaps a loss of some sort of signal. I just can't get my head wrapped around a starter causing a stall/fishbite issue once the truck is actually running. No start from low rpm turnover or high amp draw, sure. But stall once running? That's a new one on me if that's what's going on....

Too dark to carry on with it now. I'll pull the starter out in the morning.I chuck the battery charger on it and head into the house.

Not sure what else to look at from this point...maybe ignition switch. Doesn't explain slow crank though.

Just to sprinkle a little extra joy on this "S" sandwich, the driver side wheel bearing also appears to be making a loud snapping noise. I replaced the passenger side last week before the trip as i found play in it. I wanted to do the driver side too, but the parts store didn't have two of the good ones and I wasn't going to put a cheap one in. Figured I at least would get a couple weeks out of the drivers side. That would give me time to order in the good one. Nope, not even 5 days later its doggin' me. Not even going to cut me some slack there. Going to have to replace that on the road too now.

This truck sure knows how to kick a guy when he's down......:mad:

Dvldog8793
04-23-2014, 04:03
Grounding issues? If you are jumping the terminals on the starter and you get NOTHING...I would expect grounding issues someplace. Check all cables and ground points...Maybe you already did but I would check them again. Make sure starter is tight. Run a jumper wire to the starter from the battery ground and see what happens.
Good Luck and I hope this helps!

greatwhite
04-23-2014, 04:03
So it's morning now. Slept like crap. Kept going over the possibilities. makes no sense for the stalling, but everything keeps bringing me back to the starter. It's at least 6 years old, likely more. It was on the truck when I bought it about 4-5 years ago. Gear reduction starter and Bosch brand so it's not original.

Step out to the truck, batteries are fully charged and everything is stone cold so no worries on an overheated starter being an issue. Didn't over heat it yesterday either. Longest crank session may have been 5-10 second with a good 5-20 minutes apart.

Hit the remote start. Glow cycle, lift pump is running and then nothing. No crank. So, that seems to rule out the ignition switch since it's in the off position.

Jam a screwdriver against the terminals. Nothing. Not even a spark. Again, seems to eliminate the ignition switch.

Finger of blame is pointed squarely at the starter now.

For the heck of it, I try the key. Nada. Not even a click. Everything else in the truck powers up fine.

So, off to the parts store VISA in hand.

Going to buy a new starter, new IGN switch, new hub bearing and a new brake rotor (since it's the "behind the bearing" rotor). Luckily, I had the second set of brake pads in the truck from changing the other side hub bearing/rotor last week. I even have all the tools I need to do it (right down to the 35 mm socket and an electric impact). The little voice in the back of my head was saying "pack the tools, don't trust it". Always trust the little voice.....

I figure that covers my bases pretty well. Once I start working, I don't want to be running back and forth to the store. I'll just return whatever I don't need.

Bloody truck, drives me nuts. I hate the damned thing....:mad:

greatwhite
04-23-2014, 04:04
Grounding issues? If you are jumping the terminals on the starter and you get NOTHING...I would expect grounding issues someplace. Check all cables and ground points...Maybe you already did but I would check them again. Make sure starter is tight. Run a jumper wire to the starter from the battery ground and see what happens.
Good Luck and I hope this helps!

Done, done and done. Nothing.

Wouldn't explain whacking the starter and having it turn either.

Classic Chevy bad starter symptoms.

greatwhite
04-23-2014, 14:40
It was the starter.

Swapped it out and it spun over nice and fast. Gave it a light fog of ether above the open lower plenum after it started turning on the second start and it fired right up.

Ether was just enough to kick it off, get on idle speed and reprime the injectors. (yes, ether is bad, I've heard it before, thanks)

Buttoned 'er up and runs nice and smooth again.

who would have figured a bad starter would stall the truck? Internal short must bring the voltage down below minimum operation voltages.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

:)

a5150nut
04-23-2014, 15:45
Well it is good you found the problem.

Enjoy the rest of your trip and now you have one more 6.5 story for the camp fire! :D

And thanks for shareing, we all learn from each other.

DmaxMaverick
04-23-2014, 15:52
It sounds like the starter solenoid was the primary problem. Unless the solenoid is engaged (key to start), there is no Batt+ current complete to the starter, therefore, no short within the starter. The solenoid can short, although it's usually a broken end cap at the batt+ lug.

greatwhite
04-24-2014, 08:25
Whatever.

The solenoid cap is intact and I know what I'm looking at in the component and wiring diagrams.

L8tr.

phantom309
04-25-2014, 06:41
Is there a feed from starter up to firewall for power on yours?

Why did you have to fog it to start it? was it because you had the no/short glow time from disconnecting the batteries?

That is a pita,..

crashz
04-30-2014, 12:22
Glad I'm not the only one. My gas trucks run trouble-free forever. My diesels, are all like yours. Though I can extend that to both GM and Ford gas and diesel trucks.

The fishbiting and stalling seems odd to be related. I can see why you were preplexed. Have you had any instance where it gave you trouble again? Just curious.

Keep us posted with any developments.