namesray
Platinum Member
I have a 2003 f 350 dump with 6.0 diesel, 137,000 miles. Has had the "stud kit" and "delete kit" installed. Just bought truck last february. After few bugs getting fixed, ran great all summer, fall, early winter. Put snow plow on and worked great up until about a month ago. Here's what it is doing in order it happened.
Every once in awhile the power to the plow control box (in cab) wouldn't have power or respond with on off switch, but would come back in a minute or so, or next start.
Then about a month later, the batteries were weak one morning and had to jump start. Drove all morning, came back home and let sit for couple hours, it restarted, so off to my regular job with it. 8 hours later batteries weak and had to jump start. Took home and used a trickle charger and would start every morning. After a few times doing this and unhooking the plow control box everytime, I left the trickle charger off and for 3 mornings in a row, it started fine. Ok, so plow control was drawing batteries down??? But this didn't happen in early winter???
So I had the batteries tested (batteries new right before I bought truck, so about 1 year old) and they both tested great.
Now to the biggest problem that showed up. When I go to start truck, sometimes it will start, and sometimes it won't. Here is what it is doing.
When it won't start, when I first turn key all dash lights, guages, intake heater all works fine. When I turn key to start, nothing. Not even a click. Like the starte is unhooked. Previous wner says starter was also repleced right before I bought it. Truck had a crank position sensor failure when I got it and I took it to garage to gt it fixed. Previous owner could not find garage to figure out and wore old starter out trying to start one day.
So, like I was saying truck won't start like the starter is unhooked. It did this one other time to me earlier this winter, but I waited for 5 minutes and it started fine. This last time it would not start at all.
So after a couple of days sitting, we go to start it and batteries weak. We put my pick up on it with jumper cables and try crossing starter selinoid and it tries to roll. After half hour with my pick up charging it, the batteries were still weak, so put another f350 on the other bttery and waited 20 minutes. Still too weak to start??? So we wait longer and finally get it started by crossing selinoid on starter. Truck would not start with key. Got truck home and tried starting with key and it fired right up.?
So I am confused (as you all probably are from reading my poor writting skills) as where to start. Most everyone says it's the starter. Guys at auto zone say its not the starter. Other ideas are key switch, ignition switch, clutch neutral switch, truck is a manual transmission. That's about all I got. Anyone got any opinions? They sure would be appreciated. I was thinking a good next step would be to take the starter off to get tested.
Every once in awhile the power to the plow control box (in cab) wouldn't have power or respond with on off switch, but would come back in a minute or so, or next start.
Then about a month later, the batteries were weak one morning and had to jump start. Drove all morning, came back home and let sit for couple hours, it restarted, so off to my regular job with it. 8 hours later batteries weak and had to jump start. Took home and used a trickle charger and would start every morning. After a few times doing this and unhooking the plow control box everytime, I left the trickle charger off and for 3 mornings in a row, it started fine. Ok, so plow control was drawing batteries down??? But this didn't happen in early winter???
So I had the batteries tested (batteries new right before I bought truck, so about 1 year old) and they both tested great.
Now to the biggest problem that showed up. When I go to start truck, sometimes it will start, and sometimes it won't. Here is what it is doing.
When it won't start, when I first turn key all dash lights, guages, intake heater all works fine. When I turn key to start, nothing. Not even a click. Like the starte is unhooked. Previous wner says starter was also repleced right before I bought it. Truck had a crank position sensor failure when I got it and I took it to garage to gt it fixed. Previous owner could not find garage to figure out and wore old starter out trying to start one day.
So, like I was saying truck won't start like the starter is unhooked. It did this one other time to me earlier this winter, but I waited for 5 minutes and it started fine. This last time it would not start at all.
So after a couple of days sitting, we go to start it and batteries weak. We put my pick up on it with jumper cables and try crossing starter selinoid and it tries to roll. After half hour with my pick up charging it, the batteries were still weak, so put another f350 on the other bttery and waited 20 minutes. Still too weak to start??? So we wait longer and finally get it started by crossing selinoid on starter. Truck would not start with key. Got truck home and tried starting with key and it fired right up.?
So I am confused (as you all probably are from reading my poor writting skills) as where to start. Most everyone says it's the starter. Guys at auto zone say its not the starter. Other ideas are key switch, ignition switch, clutch neutral switch, truck is a manual transmission. That's about all I got. Anyone got any opinions? They sure would be appreciated. I was thinking a good next step would be to take the starter off to get tested.
