One-Click Won't start diagnosis steps...

[BigYella]

Bronco was driving fine, parked in garage, couple days later getting a 'one-click' when I turn the key, and no start. Will 1-click every time I turn the key to try to start it, but nothing else.
I think these are the steps to diagnose? I've done 1-4 (not 4a or past it ):

1. Check the battery (did this, it was fine - full 12.6 / plus hooked up to my charger and it was close to full/finished filling it and then tried again, same one click)
2. Corrosion on battery or starter solenoid or where power attaches to starter - none
3. Electrical working otherwise - check - in the 'on' position lights work, etc
4. Check the starter solenoid some - I'm not totally sure on this, but I watched a few youtubes and tested with a multimeter for continuity how it suggested.
   1. 4a. - Do I need to get someone to crank it while I have a multimeter hooked up to the power cable - say where it connects to the starter or on the out/to starter side of the solenoid (red to that, black to ground on engine), and see how much power (max amps?) is going to it?
   2. 4b. Something else I'm missing about testing the solenoid?
5. ? Should I just get a new starter solenoid and try replacing it?
   1. 5a. I watched some videos and saw that you could turn the key to 'on' so that the engine coil would work, then jump directly from the battery post of the starter solenoid to the other post (the one with the cable to the starter) - so I used a jumper cable to do that - had it there for 1.5 seconds, got super hot and maybe burned some dust on those parts, didn't start, disconnected. Hopefully the yourtube I saw on it didn't suggest something that messed something else electrical up...it seemed like it made sense - i'm bypassing the solenoid, shouldn't that juice the starter ?
6. ? See if the engine will turn - maybe the starter and solenoid are both working, but the engine is jammed (ie some metal shaving part got stuck in a gear or something?) and I need to check that?
   1. 6a.I saw some things about turning the engine manually - but I'm worried i will mess up the timing. When I replaced the fuel pump last month, I had to crank it a few times briefly with the key to get the cam to go where i needed it to for the fuel pump arm to fit in under the cam, and since that was with the key it should have rotated everything equally - but I read if you do it manually you can mess up the alignment/timing (i'm not sure of what - the spark plugs or something). What could I turn to see if the engine is turning without messing up the timing? The belt to the alternator? Something else?

Thank you

 

[Oleguy 74]

connect a test light to the starter side of the solenoid turn key to start.if light dont lite bad solenoid.

 

[Slowleak]

You said you checked the power cable to the starter. Did you check your negative battery cable where it grounds to the block?

 

[BigYella]

You said you checked the power cable to the starter. Did you check your negative battery cable where it grounds to the block?

Yeah it looks fine. I’ll do a continuity test on it I guess…

 

[Brush Hog]

Another thing to try is to smack your starter with a rubber mallet. Sometimes they decide to get stuck.

 

[Steve83]

The most-important & -obvious item is missing from your list:

(click this text)

 

[lars]

The most-important & -obvious item is missing from your list:

(click this text)

^^^this.
Battery fine, all electrical stuff works. But starter only clicks. Seen it many times. Always the negative battery terminal. Disconnect cable. Clean battery post and cable terminal with appropriate tool. Reinstall. Starts right up. Try that before anything else.

 

[BigYella]

You said you checked the power cable to the starter. Did you check your negative battery cable where it grounds to the block?

Looks good to me.

 

[BigYella]

^^^this.
Battery fine, all electrical stuff works. But starter only clicks. Seen it many times. Always the negative battery terminal. Disconnect cable. Clean battery post and cable terminal with appropriate tool. Reinstall. Starts right up. Try that before anything else.

It's pretty pristine. I disconnect the negative terminal sometimes when i'm not driving it for a while. have it greased/felt pad under etc... I was able to test the power to the starter today (alligator clipped multimeter red to where the cable to power the starter from teh solenoid meets the starter) and it was getting power when I cranked. So I think the solenoid is good.
That leaves me with two options I think....
1. replace the starter
2. The engine could be stuck?
I would love to try to turn the engine manually but I don't know how to do it on the bronco...

 

[Yeller]

I'm with the above check your grounds and positive connections. I deal with this literally every day. just because it has continuity doesn't mean it is a solid connection capable of carrying current. the connections must be disassembled, they can "look" fine but until you disconnect it, clean the connection points and check the wire, it is all for nothing. The only way to know for sure without doing that work is to check the voltage from the starter terminal to the block while the start function is tried, bet it goes to zero. If it does not the starter or the soleniod are done.

 

[ntsqd]

Put a wrench on the crank bolt and rotate the crank a little. Not a lot, just a little. Then try starting it. It is extremely rare, but it possible for the crank to stop just exactly where the starter can't get the gears engaged. When this happen the starter pulls a lot of amps and nothing happens. This has happened to me exactly once.

 

[Lawndart]

Start with the screwdriver across the solenoid trick (connect the big terminal from the positive of the battery to the smaller "S" post). If that turns it over, your starter and cables are fine.

 

[Speedrdr]

[[[See if the engine will turn - maybe the starter and solenoid are both working, but the engine but I read if you do it manually you can mess up the alignment/timing (i'm not sure of what - the spark plugs or something). What could I turn to see if the engine is turning without messing up the timing?]]]

I can’t see anything adverse that could affect the timing by turning the engine over with a wrench as long as you don’t take the distributor out…unless someone can tell me otherwise.

Randy

 

[DirtDonk]

Correct. Turning the engine over by hand is no different than turning it over by the starter.
The engine rarely stops in the same place twice anyway, so as long as everything is locked in correctly, turning the engine over is just doing its natural thing.
When you are “cranking” it with a wrench, it is the same as cranking it with the starter.
After all, that’s where the term “crank” came from originally. Before cars had electric starters, people would just get out and start it with the hand crank.

I didn’t read Steve’s tech info, but if you have a pair of jumper cables, you can narrow this down quickly.
It’s true that as many starters get old, sometimes they will just click. Sometimes the starter doesn’t click at all, but your hearing the starter relay/solenoid click on the fender.
If you smack your starter pretty good with a broom handle, or a hammer if you can get your hand down there, and then the starter works, then your starter is on the way out and should be replaced.

As others have mentioned, jumping the starter relay/solenoid is a good and legit test. Testing it with a multimeter is not really conclusive.
It certainly gives you a start, but as someone already mentioned, the current you’re dealing with to spin the starter is so high compared to what it takes to light a test light, or move the needle or display of a meter, that it’s not definitive enough of a test.
Sometimes you have to jump it.

Start with the two large posts.
Make sure the truck is in neutral/park, and the parking brake applied. Take your jumper, cable or metal handled tool, and jump from one large post on the Battery side of the relay to the large post on the starter side.
If the starter spins, then further testing of the relay and the start circuit is called for.

If it doesn’t spin, then connect the battery side stud of the relay directly down to the starter itself. Careful, as you are in an awkward position doing this, and don’t want your hands in the way of spinning things. If the starter spins like normal, Then the fault is in between the relay and starter cable.

If it doesn’t spin, then leave the end connected directly to the starter and connect the other end directly to the battery positive.
If it still doesn’t spin, then you either have a defective battery, a defective set of cables, a defective starter, or a frozen engine.
Or bad jumper cables!

But the frozen engine part you can test with a wrench on the crank bolt like described earlier.
Or, you can simply (but carefully!) grab one of the fan belts and try to turn it over by hand that way.
A well worn engine is often easy to turn by hand. Just don’t let your fingers get pinched in the belt.

 

[BigYella]

Put a wrench on the crank bolt and rotate the crank a little. Not a lot, just a little. Then try starting it. It is extremely rare, but it possible for the crank to stop just exactly where the starter can't get the gears engaged. When this happen the starter pulls a lot of amps and nothing happens. This has happened to me exactly once.

I've always wondered about this, how do they line up? I guess I figured the starter motor gear engages the flex plate (automatic trans) while already spinning. Hence the possibility for grinding. I was able to rotate it a little using basically the base of the fan on the front of the engine. That's a good idea.

 

[BigYella]

Bronco was driving fine, parked in garage, couple days later getting a 'one-click' when I turn the key, and no start. Will 1-click every time I turn the key to try to start it, but nothing else.
I think these are the steps to diagnose? I've done 1-4 (not 4a or past it ):

1. Check the battery (did this, it was fine - full 12.6 / plus hooked up to my charger and it was close to full/finished filling it and then tried again, same one click)
2. Corrosion on battery or starter solenoid or where power attaches to starter - none
3. Electrical working otherwise - check - in the 'on' position lights work, etc
4. Check the starter solenoid some - I'm not totally sure on this, but I watched a few youtubes and tested with a multimeter for continuity how it suggested.
   1. 4a. - Do I need to get someone to crank it while I have a multimeter hooked up to the power cable - say where it connects to the starter or on the out/to starter side of the solenoid (red to that, black to ground on engine), and see how much power (max amps?) is going to it?
   2. 4b. Something else I'm missing about testing the solenoid?
5. ? Should I just get a new starter solenoid and try replacing it?
   1. 5a. I watched some videos and saw that you could turn the key to 'on' so that the engine coil would work, then jump directly from the battery post of the starter solenoid to the other post (the one with the cable to the starter) - so I used a jumper cable to do that - had it there for 1.5 seconds, got super hot and maybe burned some dust on those parts, didn't start, disconnected. Hopefully the yourtube I saw on it didn't suggest something that messed something else electrical up...it seemed like it made sense - i'm bypassing the solenoid, shouldn't that juice the starter ?
6. ? See if the engine will turn - maybe the starter and solenoid are both working, but the engine is jammed (ie some metal shaving part got stuck in a gear or something?) and I need to check that?
   1. 6a.I saw some things about turning the engine manually - but I'm worried i will mess up the timing. When I replaced the fuel pump last month, I had to crank it a few times briefly with the key to get the cam to go where i needed it to for the fuel pump arm to fit in under the cam, and since that was with the key it should have rotated everything equally - but I read if you do it manually you can mess up the alignment/timing (i'm not sure of what - the spark plugs or something). What could I turn to see if the engine is turning without messing up the timing? The belt to the alternator? Something else?

Thank you

Alright, those who commented about negative wire were (basically) right!
I took the starter out, ordered another one (which I guess i'll now be returning). Just for learning purposes I tried to hook the starter up to the battery (with red) and the body (with black) using jumper cables. Still nothing. Just to see, I put the black directly on the battery terminal - ran!
So I did some more investigating, and while my negative battery cable to the engine block, and the negative battery terminal, are new and in great condition, THE BOLT that holds that cable down to the engine was super rusted / the hole around it, and the grounding cable (in some cars a strap) going from that same bolt to the car body was f-ed. It had been wrapped in black electrical tape by a previous owner, opening it revealed braided wire that was totally green lol. It didn't register on a continuity test.
So it appears it was an engine grounding problem.
I got a new cable, am cleaning parts, will then test the starts off the car, with black to the body, and if that works, should be fixed.
I guess this might explain why it got super hot when I jumped the solenoid posts - positive was flowing in with nowhere to go?
Thanks for the input. Like all things, at least I learned a fair amount about how the starter works, and how to replace it should i ever need to.

 

[gnpenning]

This is a good example of why you always want to check and double check items. I'm not just talking visual. Many won't test items, they would rather throw parts at it with a high potential of creating a new problem or masking the old one. See it daily on here. Most tests take a short time with broncos, generally minutes.

Good for you listening to the good advice and going hands on to find the problem. . Never feel bad about fixing the problem. Thanks for following up for the next guy.

 

[DirtDonk]

I think it was just a few weeks ago that someone else said their ground cable, or maybe it was the starter cable, “looked perfectly fine“ and then ended up being that they were simply loose.
Easy fix, but a common mistake to make when diagnosing.

And I don’t remember it, but did you previously mention anything about a cable getting hot?
A hot wire or cable is not just a passing anomaly. It’s a major clue!

 

[Steve83]

I guess this might explain why it got super hot when I jumped the solenoid posts

Yes - high resistance between the wire strands & the block due to the corrosion on the strands & rust on the bolt. Read this page:

(click this text)

positive was flowing in with nowhere to go?

No, electricity always & only flows in a loop. If it can't make the loop, it doesn't flow at all.

 

[BigYella]

Yes - high resistance between the wire strands & the block due to the corrosion on the strands & rust on the bolt. Read this page:

(click this text)


No, electricity always & only flows in a loop. If it can't make the loop, it doesn't flow at all.

Yeah, I took the bolt out of the engine block and soaked it in break cleaner, scrubbed it heavily with steel wool, etc. Used pipe cleaner and wire bristles to clean out the threaded hole it went in. I did the same soak and clean for bolts and washers for a lot of connected parts. I had to use a dremmel with a sanding bit then polishing bit for some of the tough rust, for instance on the body contact area on the wheel fender where the new grounding cable made connection.
I got all that done, and am now testing continuity in all those places. Got the new starter solenoid put in. Still won't start.

So many potential issues I guess now.

1. Checked the fuses in glove compartment, all good.
2. Don't know about fusable links - my haynes manual says there are about 4 depending on year, and to just 'find them' lol.
3. Fuses or circuit switches/breakers outside of the glove box?
4. Maybe a short somewhere (Only electrical problem I had previously was a right front running light/blinker that kept burning out periodically)
5. Another bad ground somewhere else?

I guess next time I'll use only jumpers with integrated fuses...
May just have to throw in the towel and tow it to a mechanic . Just when I was really learning!
Update: I noticed the bettery wires are getting hot - both red and black, although not the engine ground to body wire...so maybe they could be internally corroded I'm seeing, so may try replacing them.