Won't Start or Even Turn Over

[notagain]

Hi Everyone,

Need some help....please. Away for about 3 weeks, got back Bronco wouldn't turn over, just a click noise...once, then it won't do it again. gauges and headlights worked...radio wouldn't. The battery seemed low because prior to this it would turn over slowly, then catch.
Replaced the battery today...bit louder click (just once) now gauges don't work, headlights and horn won't work and radio still doesn't work. When trying to remove the battery yesterday, the wrench touched the positive post and the frame...few sparks. I also noticed on trying to start it prior to putting the new battery in, the key was hard to turn in the ignition (first time this has happened). Any ideas how to narrow it down? Limited mechanical skill set sooo... please advise accordingly.

Thanks,

Gary

 

[70_Steve]

Did you replace the battery with a known good battery? Sounds like a bad battery.

Put the Bronco in Park/neutral/whateve will keep it from moving. The take a jumper cable. Hook one end to the positive battery cable/post. Touch the other end to the STA terminal on the starter solenoid. The STA terminal is the "other" big terminal, opposite of the BAT+ terminal where the positive battery cable should be connected. If the engine turns over, replace the positive battery cable.

That should get you started...

 

[Bajabrewer]

X2 check terminal connections. If the cable is cracked under the attaching nut it will allow enough voltage for the lights & other things but will not be enough for the starter.

 

[patterdale]

Check the cables for corrosion inside the insulation. What kind of ends do you have? There are so many things it can be. We need more info to help you. If you have the cheap clamp on style cable ends you need to replace them either with the crimp on type that Viperwolf recommends or get some that have to be soldered on. I was caught toolless to help a guy this week with just this problem. He had clamp on style ends and corrosion up the rearend in his cables. The clamp on type have 3 dissimilar metals that invite all sorts of bad things to happen. (galvanic corrosion) He could wiggle the cables and and cause them to heat up to the point you could not touch them. It will show up as a whitish/yellowish powder in the cable. The crimp style and solder style have only 2 metals. If there is corrosion inside the insulation of the cables it is time for replacements. Even if you cut them off it will keep creeping down the cable. Use terminal cleaner on everything battery related and when you get everything together use battery terminal sealer.

 

[beernut]

Did you replace the battery with a known good battery? Sounds like a bad battery.

Put the Bronco in Park/neutral/whateve will keep it from moving. The take a jumper cable. Hook one end to the positive battery cable/post. Touch the other end to the STA terminal on the starter solenoid. The STA terminal is the "other" big terminal, opposite of the BAT+ terminal where the positive battery cable should be connected. If the engine turns over, replace the positive battery cable.

That should get you started...

Not sure if that determines fully if the battery cable is bad or not. Could it not be the solenoid if you bypass it like that?

 

[broncnaz]

Check and clean the ground wire make sure the connection at the block is clean as well. Still dont start then i would suspect the solenoid. but make sure its gounded good to as it needs to ground through the hold down bracket.

 

[notagain]

Thanks to everyone for the speedy responses. Just got back home and will attempt everything suggested tomorrow evening after work and report back. I'm really hoping it's something fixable....by me. And yes the battery is brand new.
Any recommendation on a specific brand or type of battery cables...pretty sure the existing are the stock originals, even if they're not the cause probably should be replaced.

 

[70_Steve]

Not sure if that determines fully if the battery cable is bad or not. Could it not be the solenoid if you bypass it like that?

Making my best guess based on no headlights, etc. If the solenoid was bad there would be power to headlights and all accessories.

 

[beernut]

Making my best guess based on no headlights, etc. If the solenoid was bad there would be power to headlights and all accessories.

Makes sense, just trying to soak up knowledge.

-bn

 

[Boss Hugg]

A while back I was dealing with inconsistent starting. Turned out to be a bad connection on the ignition switch and a bad switch itself. Haven't replaced the switch but have to wiggle the key to make contact to start.

 

[notagain]

Turned out to be a bad positive cable, hard to believe that something that looked that good could be that bad. Thanks to all for pointing me in the right direction. Time for a road trip, just to make sure.

 

[Calvengeance]

This is making me think I should look into new battery cables.

 

[ransil]

Trouble shoot it don't guess,get a meter..

follow this:
http://documents.clubexpress.com/documents.ashx?key=9A/SUGMVAJ0kKVeZhoQf1unnM2Ig42VuVJ0V2kuAW+g=