Ot The Beater (97 Exploder)is giving starting trouble

[greg g]

97 Explorer 97K miles, 4.0 OHC V6, relay is the little roud one on the inner fender.

Battery seems good for an old battery, when the charger is put on it only takes about 2 amps, then shuts off in an hour or so. Headlights and other electrical work as they should. Solenoid (relay) clicks once, starter won't spin. If I cycle the key to start three or 4 times, the starter will engage, and spin over as quickly as it has since I've had it (June) and it will start. Subesequent starts are usually normal.

I'm thinking

A) the relay is not connecting with enough force to complete the starter circuit, till the third or 4th try or

the starter cable connection or ground is corrupted causing more resistance than normal.

The relay is only 16 bucks, and easy to get to, no snow, the starter connections are free, but are under the car, snow cold and wet.

Whadaya think I should go for first?????

[JerseyHarold]

How old is the battery? I've seen them with intermittent internal issues that behave just like you're describing.

Do your lights dim significantly when the relay clicks? If so, then it's probably a bad starter more so than the relay. Also, if you whack the starter when it doesn't crank, and it cures it, that's another sign of bad starter.

[greg g]

Don't know the age of the battery, it was in the car when I bought it, I haven't tried to start the car with the lights on, my dad taught me to never do that when I was 12 or so.

So maybe I will give that a look.

And I couldn't whack the starter if I tried, as it buried under all the stuff that the govt requires attached to the engine on top if it.

If I have time tomorrow I will go through the trouble shootig chart, I did notice that the ground clamp is nearly half way corroded through on one side, so a ground cable is probably on tap at the least.

[P-12 Tommy]

Ferds always had starter relay problems since the '60s. Remember the old "fix or repair daily" saying? I hope you can fix it. No start problems are aggravating.

Tom

[Plymouthy Adams]

remember the click is only the sound of engerizing the relay..do the secondary high current contacts actually make? have you verified this with a volt meter...remember..it only supplies positve voltage to the starter motor...it can only go to ground if the brushes and communtator or the motor or in good working condition to provide that path...though you said it would be hard to whack the starter, can you use a long socket extension and get a tap or two in the vicinity of the brushes to ensure that they are seated..could be worn to the point that they are not making contact everytime to commutator. If tap and start..odds are worn brushes. Also a bad spot on a commutator could cause a single dead spot on the motor and prevent going to ground..

[JerseyHarold]

Another thing to try is to put a test light on the 'output' side of the relay (the cable that goes to the starter) and see if you have voltage when someone turns the key to the start position.

[greg g]

Thanks Harold that was the second thing on my Trouble shooting list.