Sometimes crank to a now no crank no sound

Tiny
DAVEY G
  • MEMBER
  • 1999 FORD MUSTANG
  • V6
  • 2WD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 170,000 MILES
I had a bad battery for a while no money to replace. But when I did replace it I noticed sometimes it would just make one loud click and then nothing. New battery and it's charged! I figured there was a hot spot on the solenoid from all the attempted starts when my battery was bad. Usually if I kept trying it would finally start one time it wouldn't so I let it roll down my driveway until it hit the gutter and then it started. This last time I couldn't get it to turn over at all so I attempted to tap on the solenoid while my friend turned key to crank. It turned over once but then I sparked something and now theres no clicking, no sound nothing. The lights come on windows roll down I swapped the relay with one next to it with same part number. Tried jumping it at the relay. I'm going to lift the car and see if I accidentally disconnected a wire when attempting to get to the solenoid from the top.
Monday, April 26th, 2021 AT 3:25 PM

1 Reply

Tiny
KASEKENNY
  • MECHANIC
  • 18,907 POSTS
Sounds like the starter has failed. When you are hitting the solenoid and it cranks, what you are doing is forcing the solenoid to find a spot on the winding that is not fried and it engages the starter.

You can verify this by checking voltage on the control wire at the starter. If there is voltage when cranking then the starter is the issue.

If it were me, I would replace the starter and retest.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-replace-a-starter-motor

Below is the process from the manual on how to replace the starter and the wiring diagram for your review. Let us know if you have other questions.
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Tuesday, April 27th, 2021 AT 9:05 AM

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