Can't get engine to crank

-
That clicking sounds like a low battery to me. Try jump starting the battery.

Next then try crossing the terminals on the starter relay to see if it will turn over.


I doubt that your engine is locked up. I do not hear the starter engaging. If the engine was locked up, you would hear the starter engage and then hang up.

Make sure all electrical connections from the battery, to the starter relay, to the starter are good, clean, and tight.


Then report back.
 
If there is no balancer bolt, there is no point in removing the front pulley from the balancer. The starter doesn't take 5 minutes to pull.
 
krazykuda said:
That clicking sounds like a low battery to me. Try jump starting the battery.

Next then try crossing the terminals on the starter relay to see if it will turn over.


I doubt that your engine is locked up. I do not hear the starter engaging. If the engine was locked up, you would hear the starter engage and then hang up.

Make sure all electrical connections from the battery, to the starter relay, to the starter are good, clean, and tight.


Then report back.
Click to expand...




The clicking is the sound of the starter trying to engage the flywheel. I see the marks that are being made on both the flywheel gear, and the gear in the starter. Every connection is tight, and clean, these were the first things I did, I made sure that there was nothing wrong with the connections(corrosion and etc). Also we already tried jumping the battery, then we tried just putting the car charger on it when that didn't work, the HUGE non-portable type, not the cheesy handheld plastic one.
 
Dude, you're in way over your head. It's time to get a mechanic to take a look at it & do some real diagnosis. It will(or would have) saved you money in the long run. Throwing parts at a car is just a waste of time & hard earned money. A good technician could diagnose this in under an hour tops & you will know what's wrong. That's got to be worth the $100 or so you would spend.
People have been trying to give good advice here & suggest simple tests to help you & it doesn't seem to be working. We can only guess on things here from our keyboards. Hire a qualified tech & you'll be glad you did.:banghead:
 
pull the starter out. put a direct 12 volts to the starter on a bench. make sure the starter is engaging.
 
Just try the nickel trick. Then at the same time, tap the starter with a hammer. Make sure you're in park or have the wheels chocked.
 
UnicronHound said:
The clicking is the sound of the starter trying to engage the flywheel. I see the marks that are being made on both the flywheel gear, and the gear in the starter. Every connection is tight, and clean, these were the first things I did, I made sure that there was nothing wrong with the connections(corrosion and etc). Also we already tried jumping the battery, then we tried just putting the car charger on it when that didn't work, the HUGE non-portable type, not the cheesy handheld plastic one.
Click to expand...

if this is true... then ur motor is seized, unicorn
 
I agree with 67Dart273 that you need to focus on getting the engine to turn over by hand. Don't worry about the starter for now, but do pull it (2 bolts, disconnect neg at battery first). You can test it off the motor easy to insure it slides its gear forward and spins, but sounds like it is straining as is.

I have had 2 slants and I could always turn the engine over by hand by pulling on the lower fan belt with one hand (standing on passenger's side), while pushing on the top fan belt. That turns it the normal way. Try turning it backwards in case something is jammed like a torque converter bolt or timing chain. Remove all the spark plugs so you don't fight compression or possibly water in a cylinder. Remove tension from both belts to insure you aren't fighting a seized component like AC compressor, alternator, or water pump. Also try prying the teeth that the starter normally acts on (both ways), but not enough to chip a tooth.

It seems you are right that there is no big crank bolt on the slant. I just looked at my 64, which has a single integrated dampener-pulley and it just has a small center hole. Perhaps I never removed it on my 69 slant, having always gotten a long-block.

If no luck, your engine may be seized. I got a 273 that was like that. It had sat outside with no intake and wet leaves collecting in the V. I couldn't budge the crank and after removing the heads and crank had to beat the pistons with a sledgehammer on a wood block to finally budge them, working them back and forth and using a ridge reamer as deep as I could. I ended up breaking two of them, which is bad since the rare HiPo pistons. If I repeated that, I would leave them soaking for a year or more w/ oil, brake fluid, etc (some suggest Coke) and just beat them a little each week. I hope you have better luck.
 
So I'm guessing that it's seized, nothing I tried makes anything at all move. So I guess the next part is to strip the engine to the block to get to the crankshaft and piston and all that nice stuff, huh?
 
UnicronHound said:
So I'm guessing that it's seized, nothing I tried makes anything at all move. So I guess the next part is to strip the engine to the block to get to the crankshaft and piston and all that nice stuff, huh?
Click to expand...

If the engine is seized as a last ditch effort you can pull all the spark plugs, fill the cylinders with diesel fuel and let it sit for a couple of days.
Then leave the plugs out and see if it cranks. If it does crank then crank it over a few times to spill the extra fuel out of the cylinders, then replace the plugs and see if it will start.
If it does start turn it off and change the oil right away.
Even if it frees it up the motor might need a rebuild anyway.
 
Before you pull the motor out. A last-ditch check is to remove the inspection plate at the bottom front of the transmission. If you can get at a torque converter bolt, put a wrench on it and try to tighten it. The engine might budge then. That might be the only place to get a wrench on a slant's crank. If not, you will need to pull the engine and transmission together since you can't separate them if you can't turn the crank over. However, you should be able to apply as much torque by prying on the gears where the starter acts, as mentioned above. Just get a real long screwdriver or thin pry bar.
 
I know it's been awhile, but I went with the kerosene trick, instead of diesel, and got the crank pulley to move half a rotation, nearly killing myself in the process with how hard it was. I had to use my broken fan belt to do it to, I wrapped it around the bottom of the crank pulley then up to the fan belt, I got it to be as tight as possible, and force the crank pulley/shaft to move. But now, it's stopped again, and I can't get it to budge, I even took the advice of someone and tried to get it to reverse, but it won't. I'm starting to think that I may HAVE to rebuild the damn thing if what Bill said doesn't work next.
 
OK . If the engine was locked up the starter relay and the starter would engage and stay engaged ( one click sound from each ). To hold the key in the start position would over heat the starter and/or the battery cable connections. A rattling starter relay as heard in your video is an electrical problem. You dont have enough current flow to hold that relay closed. A failed starter relay could be the cause but its more often poor connections at the battery terminals or where the ground wire is attached to the block.

And by the way, engines always start and stop in the same places so wear seen on the ring gear teeth is not new wear.
 
Kerosine and diesel are basically the same. Since you moved it 1/2 rotation, you are almost there. Leave the spark plugs out and put a few ounces of motor oil in each hole. Keep trying to turn it back and forth. You can apply much more torque by prying the teeth at the starter hole, and that is easy. Once it turns over completely, and you are sure there is nothing jamming the crank (no funny noises), put the starter back in and use that to turn it over. Disconnect the ballast resistor so it doesn't try to spark (bad for coil & points). Once you get it cranking over well, put back in the spark plugs, activate your ignition and see if it will run.
 
It's still going rough, but it's easing up a bit. I've got it to go nearly three full rotations, I'm hoping another rotation or so, I can actually crank it. It didn't want to turn over when I turn it the first rotation.
 
If I were you I would remove anything and everything I had to to get a socket on the damper bolt so you can really turn the dame thing. If it's still that tight than it's fawked, I'd be pulling it apart.
 
Theres a ground from the battery to the block but on the passenger side there should be a ground strap from the block to frame. I would pull all the plugs and try to crank it over. I spun a bearing on a s-10 one time it was locked pulled the plugs got it to crank and it got me home. The sound on the video sounded why more like a electric click then a mechanical click
 
Well I got a weak little attempt by the car to turn over. So the rotating of the crank is definitely starting to work. Hopefully, I can get it turning over, and started soon.
 
I'm gonna share a little stroy about my nephew and his Ford Explorer.
I have to start with this all taking place in January so he's working on the cold damp ground.
Explorer fails to start. He pulled the starter off , took it to AutoZone they checked it with 12 volts and it ran. He put it back on and hit the key again. Jumper cables to his wifes car, etc.. no joy. Few days passed, neighbors looked at it, no clues.
He took the starter off again and took it to a different parts store, same thing. Long story short , 3 part stores showed the starter to be good.
So when he called me I took the starter off for the 4th time but I hit it with his jumper cabels righ there on the ground in front of the Explorer. It ran. When I said "This starter is bad" heasked "How can that be ?" I explained that a starter laying loose should start with enough torque to almost roll itself over. To just come on like a fan motor is wrong.
New starter, happy motoring. End of story.
 
RedFish, not to be, or sound rude, but I don't care about the starter right now, the crank shaft isn't moving freely at all with the starter out of the motor, so it's not the starter. Also I already did the test with the starter like everyone else in this thread have suggested, and it turned over, so I'm highly doubtful it's a bad starter.
 
Engines are not supposed to be easy to turn by hand. Even with the spark plugs removed to relieve the compression you are turning a whole lot of parts.
The fact that you can turn the engine by hand shows that the starter should turn it. A good starter and connections to it is a heck of a lot stronger than we are.
But... whatever dude. I'm convinced yours is an electrical problem whether its bad battery cables, or other.
Just be aware that twisting on the crank bolt will eventually sieze those threads until nobody can get that bolt out again.
 
i would put the starter back in and hook it directly (not through any other wiring) to a 12V power source bumping it over (squirting diesel in the cylinders every time it budged) until it will turn freely. if it didnt loosen up after a half a day of good bumps then it would come out.
 
I suspect you have one of two things wrong. Either water has gotten into one or more of the cylinders and causing rust and the difficult rotating of the engine, or, it's spun a bearing causing the same syptoms. Look inside each cylinder to see if there is any rust. If so, you've found the problem. If no rust, probably a bearing. Either way the engine has to come apart. With oil in the cylinders and plugs removed, the engine should turn over easily by hand or a small wrench on the balancer. The only other thing I can think of that would allow some rotation but not a complete one would be something coming apart inside the bell housing. The should be obvious if you take the dust cover off and inspect.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top