Bad Starter

[Skillet]

Looks like my starter is shot. Been having intermittent problems with it randomly taking several tries to fire up the engine. Yesterday I tried for a while and hear loud clicks from the starter area, but no luck this time. I have full lights, etc when it's in the accessory position. Should I just order whatever the replacement is for a Ford or is there something better I should look at?

[Blue~Go]

Sounds like you know how to diagnose things, but just in case: A few years ago I noticed that the negative Ford cable that goes to the starter had an awkward bend just before it attached to the starter (courtesy of Ford, not Chinook). Right at the bend, due to stress I imagine, the wire insulation had completely cracked, and the crack was facing forward (as you drive). The copper wire inside was completely green. I replaced the last 6" or so of the cable and terminated it in such a way as to avoid the awkward bend (was fun getting under there with the big crimpers that have like a 5' wingspan...)

I hadn't had any trouble starting, and annoyingly for the sake of research I replaced my battery at the same time (which is why I was inspecting the battery cable harness), but I can say it turned over MUCH more quickly after I did the work. Gee, I hadn't realized it was slow.

Here is a photo: Red arrow points to the problem spot on the stock Ford negative wire; silver "can" off to the left is the starter.

[Skillet]

Just to kind of close this post, here's what I did:

I ordered another starter and when I received it, proceeded to try and take the old one off. I found that I didn't have long enough tools to get to the top bolt. Too much stuff in the way and it looks like it's going to be a pain. So while I was under there I took off the negative wire and sanded the connection real good. I hooked it back up and the Chinook fires up every time. The connection didn't look corroded or bad in any way. A few months later and it's still good to go. My new starter is now in the garage and standing by for when I do need it.

[Blue~Go]

I'm glad you followed up here and that you got it fixed. That negative starter wire can be a problem child!

[Manitou]

I had an intermittent starting problem. Once leaving me in a large well lite parking lot for the night. I would try it a few times as I woke up through out the night (texas heat and didn't want to run the generator for the a/c do to noise). It finally started around 8 or 9 am again. Then continued to work every try for another day or 3 of the trip. I replaced the starter and the starting solenoid just for good measure. Had years of no trouble after that. Might want to order a solenoid just to have with your garage starter for when/if you revisit the issue. The Solenoid is pretty cheap as I recall.

[kdarling]

All great stories and info.

One lesson in all this is that our rigs are many years old, and it's time to clean up some connections.

Like when my generator struggled to get up enough speed to start. Until I went underneath and cleaned the chassis ground connections back there. After that, it starts up nicely. So now I think I'll proactively do my starter connections as well.

Another example was when my starter battery died after a couple of years. No problem, I thought. I'd just hit the "Boost" button that Chinook added, to connect the house battery to the start battery. Well, I could hear the solenoid click, but nothing happened. Lights didn't get brighter or anything.

Turned out the boost solenoid simply did not connect internally any more. Good thing this didn't happen out in the boonies. (Well, that's what jumper cables are for, you can always manually jump house batteries to the starter.)

A trip to the local auto parts got another Ford solenoid for about $10, and now it boosts like a charm. Oh yeah, I got a new start battery too

Kev

[Astrodokk]

I had issues in my SOB (some other brand) RV, actually my Airstream. The starter would get so hot that if I stopped, it would not start until it cooled. Installing a heat shield and mini starter fixed the problem. Hopefully these rigs don't need that or have these issues with heat.