The old grinding starter problem.
#11
there's one on firewall and on starter. I have the 5.4 too, and it took me forever to find this and it's been three years since and no more issues.
Attachment 353733
Attachment 353733
#12
F150 Manic
I was so happy after several years and 3 mechanics including a ford dealership telling me they couldn't figure it out I was so glad this cheap fix actually was what was wrong with it.
#13
#14
Senior Member
The piggy back solenoid isn't a starter relay. To different types of processes.
I'm curious how this is going to turn out. I've never heard of a firewall relay causing a grinding noise as 4x4wolf suggests. So yes, please update. I'd like to add this to possible solutions. Since with other solutions, it can be much more costly.
#15
Back in the day,the solonoid on the wheelwell made it real easy to hotwire a car.All you had to do was jump across two terminals,then use a screwdriver to activate the starter.
Figured this out on my dad's 65 Falcon before I even had a driver's license
Last edited by Jeff in Ferndale Wa; 11-30-2014 at 02:48 PM.
#16
there's one on firewall and on starter. I have the 5.4 too, and it took me forever to find this and it's been three years since and no more issues.
Attachment 353733
Attachment 353733
The more I think about this, it's really a strange problem to chase down. If it truly is missing teeth or a bad spot on the flex plate then once once it happens you should not be able to start the motor at all unless you rotate the motor with a breaker bar to get to a better part of the flex plate. But it seems that without rotating the engine the starter will eventually engage and crank.
More than enough people on the forums have thrown new starters at this with no luck.
But the total randomness of when this happens combined with the fact that it will start fine 30 seconds later still leads me towards flaky electrical some where.
Now I'm wondering if the wire from the relay to the starter on the solenoid could have a bad connection.
#17
#20
Senior Member
Well I tried this one. I even got the deluxe version from Standard". Two starts later it started grinding again. Now two days later and it hasn't done it since.
The more I think about this, it's really a strange problem to chase down. If it truly is missing teeth or a bad spot on the flex plate then once once it happens you should not be able to start the motor at all unless you rotate the motor with a breaker bar to get to a better part of the flex plate. But it seems that without rotating the engine the starter will eventually engage and crank.
More than enough people on the forums have thrown new starters at this with no luck.
But the total randomness of when this happens combined with the fact that it will start fine 30 seconds later still leads me towards flaky electrical some where.
Now I'm wondering if the wire from the relay to the starter on the solenoid could have a bad connection.
The more I think about this, it's really a strange problem to chase down. If it truly is missing teeth or a bad spot on the flex plate then once once it happens you should not be able to start the motor at all unless you rotate the motor with a breaker bar to get to a better part of the flex plate. But it seems that without rotating the engine the starter will eventually engage and crank.
More than enough people on the forums have thrown new starters at this with no luck.
But the total randomness of when this happens combined with the fact that it will start fine 30 seconds later still leads me towards flaky electrical some where.
Now I'm wondering if the wire from the relay to the starter on the solenoid could have a bad connection.
I was really hoping it was going to be an easy fix.