gabbyfan

The last few mornings it has been pretty cold out here and when I try to start my truck in the morning it just cranks and cranks. I figured out the solenoid is not pulling up because if I manually pull up on it, it fires right up. The rest of the day it starts perfect and then the next morning I have to manually pull the solenoid up again. Any ideas what is wrong and why it only does it after sitting overnight? Any help would be great

FlaCracker

I know that the fuel shutdown solenoids pull-up solenoid draws a lot of current, putting a big demand on cold batteries, So, initial starts will be the most demanding, especially if the truck has been sititng overnight in a cold climate. Greatest demand being put on batteries at this time, especially if they are getting older. How old are your batteries? They may be starting to closing their reserve cranking capacity.

blackimpala

You could try cleaning the solenoid and putting some dry lube on it. I have read many times that they get so dirty and gummed up that they wont pull up and the cold would make it worse.

Floyd

Dave Miller

Same thing happened to mine. I pulled it and cleaned it with brake cleaner and lubed it with silicone spray lube and it worked for awhile before the fuel relay went out and replaced that and Ok now.

I'd try cleaning the plunger and bore and verify the rubber boot is not getting in the way if worn or torn.

If that doesn't fix it it could be electrical: either the fuel solenoid relay on firewall or blue fusible link off drivers side + post or worst case a bad fuel solenoid which is $200+.

The fuel relay is used only to power the "Pull" section of the fuel solenoid. The "Hold" section of the fuel solenoid gets its power from Fuse 9 directly and appears to be working if it runs after pulling up the fuel solenoid.

If the relay is good it could be the blue fusible link (near drivers side battery off positive post) that feeds the relay need looking at. The fusible is a likely culprit and powers the fuel relay 12v to energize the "pull" circuit. The relay and fusible link can be verified with a volt reading while cranking to determine what is bad.

Of course if the batteries are weak they could be a cause since the pull circuit draws 70 amps or at least that is the rating of the fuel relay.