Electrical Problems with Ford Explorer

Maintenance/Repairs
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1

2002 FORD EXPLORER 4.6L V8

I have a 2002 Ford Explorer 4.6L V8. A week ago I was driving to work and it just died on me while in motion. I pulled over, put it to Park, tried to restart it and started right up. I drove the rest of the distance about 1/4 mile with no issues. A few hours later I drove around on my lunch break with no issues. On my way how from work I stopped at a red light and the truck went off. I tried to restart it and this time I only got a single click. The battery is good and fully charged. After several attempts to start it without any luck I had a friend tow me to the house. Next day I checked all the connections to the battery, any loose ground wires or blown fuses but none. All looked fine and the battery terminals are not corroded. The only thing I noticed was one of the bolts on the Starter Solenoid was loose so I tightened it. (the one bolt that holds down the Field Coil Connector from the Solenoid to the Starter Motor Assembly). So i figured maybe it would start after that but no luck. Any ideas??

2

I’m thinking you have an ignition switch problem there OP. Do you have a lot of stuff dangling on your keychain?

3

Tell us if your battery is dead. What is the normal battery voltage and the battery voltage while cranking the engine. I don’t think your chain has anything to do with this.

4

This means the starter is dead or getting a low voltage, eg, dead battery or bad cables.

“The battery is good and fully charged” How and when did you test this? If it is indeed good and the cables and connections are good, all that is left is a bad starter.

5

Just because the battery connections look okay it doesn’t mean they really are making a solid connection. Your best bet is to clean the connections using a battery post cleaning brush. If that doesn’t eliminate the trouble then check for internal wire corrosion inside the cables at the battery terminals.

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