I have lights radio, but no cranking.

[ol'Rusty]

I have just got my truck back from a back yard mechanic (because I live in a condo and have no where to work on my truck) who pulled out my 300 straight 6 and transmission. I got the truck back and it will not start. He told me it would be the solenoid, or one of my battery cables. I have now changed my battery cables, starter solenoid, and cable from my starter solenoid to my starter, and I have nothing. The radio and lights come on but there is no crank. When the truck is push started it runs fine.... I am lost. Oh and it is a manual transmission so having it is drive or reverse does not apply.
thanks for any help you can give me to get my old friend running
ol'Rusty.

[flyboy2610]

I would check the voltage on the battery. It may have enough juice to run the lights and radio, but not enough to crank the truck.
My next thought would be the ignition switch itself. It may be ok in the acc or run positions, but bad in the start ;position.

[kid]

Check the small wires going to the solenoid and make sure one has 12V when the key is in start only.

I know the feeling I moved from an apartment where i could get away with working on my truck to a house where No one is allowed to work on anything without a permit and the pickup just fits in the garage and the Flatbed doesn't. Guess who needs the most work.

[ol'Rusty]

thanks guys I'll try it out, as for the battery I don't have a voltage meter, but I do have a voltage light I just ran and got it from my storage space. I'll try to track the problem with that on the solenoid, and the ignition switch. As for the battery it was good a week ago and never gave me a problem, and I tried to jump it with my girl friends car and still nothing so I think the battery is most likly all right.
If I try these things and still nothing I will be back tonight or tomorrow.
Fords forever
ol'Rusty F-100

[rjewkes]

interesting mounting of the rearview mirror. kinda cool.

try this take a screw dirver normal size flat head. make sure it has a good handle made of wood or plastic.

don't touch the metal part of the driver. now make contact betewwen the post of the selenoid that comes from the battery, and that first tiny post just a second or two but no more than 15 sec. if it kicks over its either your ign switch/wiring. or you selenoid, several people have discovered that you can get several bad ones from the parts store al in a row.

[import600]

I just had this issue, make sure of the simple things first. Your truck isn't in gear and the battery has juice. ALSO be sure that the solenoid is grounded out, generally mounting it to the fender will do this but be sure there isn't an rust bolt hole or such (simple enough but this is what my problem turned out to be).

Then to emilinate any issue with the starter, take an extra battery cable and touch it to either end of the solenoid. Careful it should turn over. If it doesn't then it's your battery or starter having an issue.

If it turns over then take a gander at the smaller wires mounted to the solenoid. If it's factory wiring, the small wire closest to the battery, should be red-blue and should have voltage when you turn the key. [quote]Take a test light and stab / check the "Red-Blue stripe" wire when you turn the key to the start position and see if it lights up. Then follow this wire out to the starter solenoid and check it along the way. It should be this same color coded wire all the way out to the solenoid… I’m looking at the wire diagram and it looks like there is a "Yellow connector" close to the solenoid that this wire runs through and it also has the right Headlight wires on it as well. So if your right head light is working then there is a brake in this “Red-Blue stripeâ€Â

[ol'Rusty]

Thanks for all you help boys. The problem was 2 things combined:
1. the ground on the solenoid was not grounded properly so after sanding the truck at the mount and changing the bolts to something a little tighter things were good.
2. the battery was reading 12.8 volts but for some reason wasn't giving enough amps to crank the starter over. I had no idea the battery could read all good on the volts but not have the amps. I thought it would have everything or nothing.

Anyways just wanted to thank the people at this forum for the help and hopefully this trouble shoot will help someone in the future.
Keep the F100's alive
Kent.