Was running fine. Went to leave today and won't start. Power wi does and lights all work. Took batteries to get tested and they are fine. Any ideas. Fuses are good. Checked them. How can I crank it with the battery terminals?

 

Is this an automatic transmission? If so, then with the key in the START position, (park brake firmly on) rock the gear shift between PARK and NEUTRAL.

If it is a standard and with the transmission in neutral and the ignition key in the START position, try pushing the clutch ALL the way to the floor and back out. Do this 2 or 3 times.

Let us know what happens. Do you have a multimeter or a 12 volt trouble light and do you know how to use them?

 

tried this and still nothing.

 

It is an automatic.

 

I am surprised that nobody else has chimed in by now. Shiela, I am not an expert nor do I know your vehicle, but can maybe point you at a couple of general things to try.

You did not say if you have a multimeter and if you know how to use one, but am going to presume that you do.

First test is to turn on the headlights and have someone watch them while you try to start the engine. If they go out or dim significantly, then there is either a battery problem or a bad connection somewhere. Hope that your battery connections are all good. Do you have one or two batteries on your truck?

Now trace the positive (red) cable from the battery. No idea on your truck, but on the older Fords there are two heavy duty solenoids. The first one is located either behind the battery or headlight. See if that positive wire goes to this solenoid. Set your multimeter to 12 volts DC (NOT AC!) and check for power on both sides of this solenoid with the ignition switch in the ON position. The red wire from the multimeter to the wire and the black to any good ground. If there is power, then go to the starter. Set the parking brake firmly and place the positive lead from the multimeter on the heavy wire that comes out of the starter and have someone turn the ignition switch to the START position. If there is no power there, than that MAY mean a problem elsewhere, but will not address that now. If there is power at the starter when the key is turned, then that shows a good possibility that the starter is kaput.

Good luck. Let us know what you find and we can try something else. Hopefully someone with lots more knowledge than me will chime in too.

 

We jumped the starter relay and it cranked right up.

 

Glad you got it started! I was going to suggest that you take a heavy blunt object and firmly tap the starter housing while someone turns the key. Sometimes when a starter is beginning to fail it gets a "dead spot" on the stator and tapping the housing with a hammer or big wrench etc. can bump it off the "dead spot" and the starter will spin. You can only perform this trick so many times before you have to rebuild/replace the starter.

 

When you say you jumped the starter relay, does that mean you applied power to the coils and brought in the relay to start it, or did you jump directly across the contacts to engage the starter?

If you brought in the coil, it is a likely ignition switch, if you jumped the contacts, I would start with a new relay, cheap to start.

 

Let us know what you did to resolve the problem. If your truck has two solenoids like I suspected, which one was the problem?