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Truck won't start-Grounds!

J

juddspaintballs

my balls are painted!
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Location
West by God Virginia
I'm at work and my wife is at home. 1999 Suburban 6.5L 256k miles. She drove the Suburban around today already. She claims that when she got home earlier today the little light that indicates drive, neutral, reverse, park was out. It may have been out longer than today, who knows.

Anyways, she called and said it won't start. All functions work when the key is turned backwards (windows, wipers, etc.). Turn the key forward and the wait to start light comes on and you can hear the lift pump working. Turn the key to start and nothing. I had her check fuses under the hood and in the dash. She found no broken ones. I had her switch the starter relay with the AC relay and that didn't change anything. I know if I were home I could check the starter and such to make sure it was getting power. At this point my best guess is the solenoid probably went bad, but it's hard to tell from here at work.

Any other things she can check tonight or I should look for when I get home tomorrow? Also, how hard is it to remove the starter?
 
She can wiggle the cables.

Load testing the batteries would also be a good idea.

She can check for voltage when she turns on the key.

What exactly is the vehicle doing or not?
 
The starter is making no noise whatsoever. The DRL's shut off when the key is in the start position, like they always do when starting the vehicle. I guess that means the ignition switch is still good?

She wiggles cables and voltage is about 12.5v when the key is in the START position according to the dash gauge.
 
I'd test for voltage, Do a load test on each battery - charged and disconnected.

Definitely check all of the battery cable connections. If all that is good I would try jumpering the solenoid and possible load testing the cable that hooks to the starter.

You can test for voltage on the small wire that runs to the solenoid, with the key in the start postition
 
Yeah, I can test for that tomorrow. Nothing else she can do tonight, though. Seems like a bad week for a starter solenoid to go. The rebuild shop isn't open Weds, Thurs, Fri. and I'm definitely not buying a junk rebuild from Advance or Napa.
 
If the batteries/cables are original (side posts), you might want to check the one on the passenger side that has the double positive cable... in between the two cables is a little copper donut that (when it gets crudded up) causes exactly those symptoms.

You can sometimes bypass it by putting a set of booster cables on, from one battery to the other (be sure to watch for polarity!! + to +, - to -)

Don't start pulling starters off until you have eliminated all the cheap and easy stuff. 99% of the time, it's a connection, neutral start switch, or something else that's easy to fix.
 
Yup, just had her do it. It doesn't start in neutral or park and while holding the key to start and moving the shifter, it won't start in any position. Reverse lights do come on when the shifter is in the R position.
 
Try changing the tilt position of the steering wheel. If it's really cold outside my ignition doesn't send voltage to the starter unless I hold the key in start and change the tilt.
 
Actually I meant it as one form of diagnosis, and if the symptoms were the same it could be started until the switch was changed.
 
NVW said:
Actually I meant it as one form of diagnosis, and if the symptoms were the same it could be started until the switch was changed.
Click to expand...

Would changing the ignition switch necessarily fix that? The wires and such would still be the same after the ignition switch swap. That could be a wire problem.
 
My guess is the jarring of the column makes the connection in the switch. Until I change it I won't know for sure. The switch is below the tilt section of the column.
 
my guess is the mech linkage, that connects the key switch to the actual electric switch in the lower column, changes geometry slightly when you tilt and pushes on the contacts differently
 
I'm in the midst of checking things out. I pulled all four posts off of the batteries, cleaned all contacts and wires up and put it back together with some anti-seize. That didn't help (but at least that potential issue has been eliminated). Moving the steering column while holding START doesn't help. As described earlier, the DRL's cut out when in the START position, so I believe the ignition switch is probably working correctly and the problem is either going to be in the neutral safety switch, the starter itself, or a wire running to the starter.

So, I pulled the starter (really easy). Of course, the post for the ignition wire on the solenoid broke off as I took the alternator down, so I'm in the process of soldering a lead onto it so I can reconnect the ignition wire when I reinstall it. I put the starter on the bench and put power directly to the side of the solenoid that feeds the alternator with the ground wire grounded to the case of the alternator. The motor spun so I put the positive lead on the normal side of the solenoid and ran a jumper wire from the battery to the ignition post on the solenoid. The motor spun in that configuration so I'm going to call the starter "good."

Next step is to hook up a battery and have my wife turn the key to START so I can test for voltage from the ignition wire.
 
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