• NAXJA is having its 18th annual March Membership Drive!!!
    Everyone who joins or renews during March will be entered into a drawing!
    More Information - Join/Renew
  • Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum! If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.

Thought I fixed it, now no crank.

greenlawnjeeper

NAXJA Forum User
Location
NY
I have a (late) '96 with 120K miles, the 4.0 HO. It was starting up good but sometimes recently needed the throttle pedal floored on restarts. The other day when doing this, the battery started going weak and I thought I was dead but it did fire up. I googled that condition and found many causes. 2 days ago I tested fuel pressure at the rail and got 42-43 lbs running with a quick drop after shut off. The late 96's call for 49 plus minus a couple. I put a new battery in yesterday and got 47 psi running which is in the range but still had the drop off after shut off. I did about 4 tests of driving, shutting it off, waiting a bit and restarting. On those restarts, it fired up immediately so I thought all was OK. Today it fired up immediately cold, I drive around for 10 minutes and park back in the driveway. Go out 15 minutes later to restart and no crank. Lights work, gauges come on. I even go put my old battery back in and get the same result. Tapped the starter with a hammer for good measure. What the heck happened? Scan tool shows no codes. Coinsidentially did the CPS or ignition switch fail? Thanks, Fred
 
If you have a good battery, then the most common things to look at would be the starter itself and the neutral safety switch on the side of the transmission.

If you crawl under, you can jumper the 12v power cable on the starter over to the small control terminal on the starter, and the starter should spin and engage. If not, verify that there is 12v on the large terminal. If there is voltage and no response from the starter, then the starter is bad.

If it cranks when jumpering the starter, then you most likely have a bad neutral safety switch. Try moving the shifter to neutral and back and forth between the gears. If it cranks in some positions but not the others, it is the switch.
 
Unless I did something wrong, it didn't jump. I cleaned the NSS and will put it back in tomorrow. I have an old starter which I'll try mext if necessary.
 
Good plan.

Ok, it APPEARS to have been the NSS. It started right up after I installed the cleaned up switch. I lubed the internals with d-grease. I had cleaned the switch prior 7 years ago. I am not very happy with the crank speed after the new battery. Maybe I will treat the girl to a new HD starter. Before I hand the keys over to my wife, I want to subject it to a few more days of testing just to make sure it's 100%, thanks.
 
UPDATE, just tried to start it and NOTHING, no crank, same as before. Lights work, gauges come on etc. Tomorrow I'll swap in my old oem starter which was verified OK this morning by both Autozone and Advance Auto.
 
UPDATE, just tried to start it and NOTHING, no crank, same as before. Lights work, gauges come on etc. Tomorrow I'll swap in my old oem starter which was verified OK this morning by both Autozone and Advance Auto.


While it's in a no-crank status, check if you get voltage to the starter. That will tell you if it's the starter or not not.
 
There is such a thing as marginal cables and connections.
 
I swapped in the old (oem) starter verified good by Autozone and Advance Auto, it started right up and cranked up quicker than the other. I'll play it by ear, do some test runs and only shut it off when I'm back in the driveway. If no problems, I'll buy a new starter. I replaced the oem one (which is in the car now) at about 80K miles when I had some starting issues I thought mighy have been starter related, so I'm not entirely comfortable leaving it in. Thanks for the help. Hopefully you've heard thelast from me on this problem.
 
Back
Top