Truck won’t start

Maintenance/Repairs
,
1

I have a 93 Nissan D21. It stopped starting a couple months back. I replaced the starter. That helped, but it never really ran right since. It would crack really slow, then start right up after 1 or 2 tries. It slowly got worse and it finally stopped starting again. Had the battery and alternator tested, both were bad and replaced them. Immediately after it started fine for a day or two. Then it went back to cranking really slow. If I turned and held the key it would crank once every 5-10 seconds and eventually start. Now the truck won’t even turn over. Please help!

2

Sounds like a dead battery. The two big possibilities are a bad alternator (I know you replaced it, but it’s not at all unheard of to get a bad replacement) or a drain on the battery when the truck is off.

3

Battery has a full charge and alternator is good. Just tested them both this morning.

4

if battery is good, then the next step is to recheck all your connections to make sure they are tight and corrosion free.

1 Like
5

Yep, done that too.

6

Did you load-test the battery? Sometimes a bad battery will show a great reading on a multimeter when it’s just sitting there, but as soon as you ask it to do any work it stumbles.

1 Like
7

When you replaced the starter motor, did that include a new solenoid? If the answer is yes, then I’d seriously consider replacing the high tension lead from the battery to the solenoid. It looks like the electricity transfers from the solenoid to the starter motor internally, but if there’s a cable between the solenoid and the starter motor I’d replace that, too. Finally, find the ground cable between the engine and the frame and clean both terminals well, and do the same with the ground from the battery to the frame.

If you used the old solenoid on the new starter, check that out carefully. The internal contacts do wear out over the years and you might have so much resistance in the solenoid not enough power is getting to your starter motor.

2 Likes
8

The battery was load tested. And it is a new solenoid too. I’m not super mechanical, but I’m going to try and check wiring. There’s no corrosion just looking at anything.

9

Basics: Read the battery voltage before and while someone attempts to start the truck. Report results.

10

And read the voltage right on the starter terminals. Measure on each terminal to the case of the starter.

1 Like
11

Were you able to fix it?