Is there a "better" starter/7.3

[rammertide07]

Yesterday, I noticed my truck was a little trouble starting. So this morning when I went to crank it....it barely had enough spin to get it started. I'm going to go out at lunch at start with the battery terminals. I have a couple of fused wired coming off the positive terminals....800watt inverter on my passenger battery and my gauges and auxillary back-up lights on my driver side.They get kinda crusty when you have connections like that on them.

Also the other day, I took off just the posotive battery cables to reset the computer. Is that ok?...or should I have taken off the negative cables as well?

On my way to work, the voltage gauge on my dash was reading high and my radar detector was showing about 13.5v. I'm going to check the voltage at lunch before I start it to see if the batteries have drained any. If I cant get the truck started, I'm going to take the batteries off and take em up to the parts store to have them tested. If they check out ok, I'm going to try getting a starter. My uncle's 99 7.3 starts up much faster than mine...maybe twice as fast. It has been like that since I can remember.

So if I do buy a starter is there a "better" one to buy? And I've looked at some already...does it matter if it is 2 or 3 bolt? Thanks for the advice guys

 

[Dogman]

I have gotten other starts and have not liked the way they turn over so. I have aways gone back to a motorcraft starter. You pay a little more, but you get what you pay for.

 

[rammertide07]

Checked out my batteries....one of the negative battery terminals was loose. So either that was the culprit, or I really did have a good connection and the batteries just haven't had time to drain down from running it this morning. Guess I'll see tomorrow morning. Still not starting up as fast as my uncles 7.3. I know I'm going to need a starter soon..

 

[mike.germann]

Connections are pretty sensitive, from my experiences. I too have a bunch of wires coming off my terminals (subs speaker cables, train horns power, winch cables, LED strobes aux power, etc.), and I spent a full-out month diagnosing the truck's intermittent start problem. I knew it had to be electrical, I just couldn't fugure out why. HAD A GUY GO AS FAR AS TO TELL ME MY HPOP WAS FAILING. Yeah. Mega-fail.

I basically had to purchase bolt cutters to chop off my terminal cables so I could replace the heavy-duty terminal connections. Once I made sure everything was good and tight, and double-checked all of my grounds, started her up and she's ran great ever since. (knock on wood)


I noticed my start time increased, and the amount of revolutions needed for the engine to fire was cut almost in half. Just my .02, hope that helps.

 

[NevrKnow]

HAD A GUY GO AS FAR AS TO TELL ME MY HPOP WAS FAILING. Yeah. Mega-fail

You SURE it wasn't the HPOP?

Sorry, I couldn't resist, that part was just too damm funny!

 

[rammertide07]

I basically had to purchase bolt cutters to chop off my terminal cables so I could replace the heavy-duty terminal connections. Once I made sure everything was good and tight, and double-checked all of my grounds, started her up and she's ran great ever since. (knock on wood)


I noticed my start time increased, and the amount of revolutions needed for the engine to fire was cut almost in half. Just my .02, hope that helps.

That is deffinately worth a try...never thought of that

 

[clintusaf]

Are all of our main postive and negative connections 0 gauge from the factory?

 

[mike.germann]

Mine are. I gotta ask also, do all of our trucks run 2 batteries? Someone asked me about mine, and I honestly didn't know if they alll did.

 

[rammertide07]

Mine are. I gotta ask also, do all of our trucks run 2 batteries? Someone asked me about mine, and I honestly didn't know if they alll did.

I don't see how a truck like ours would start without 2 batteries. I'd say deffinately all of em have 2 batteries....or supopse to at least

 

[clintusaf]

Yes, i believe the deisel models all have a dual battery setup.

And now i gotta know, how do you know the gauge of the wires, but not how many batteries we have? Just pickin, thats halarious though.