<VV> Frustrating weekend again.

[Chris]

Thank you RonH for your suggestion.  I tried disconnecting the 12 v from the
coil, and it made no difference.  I put a volt meter across the battery, and
was surprised to see it read zero.  I thought maybe my voltmeter was broken.
I disconnected the negative lead from the battery, and the battery voltage
went right back up to normal.  So, now, I'm thinking "aha" something is
shorted somewhere and draining the energy, which is why it won't turn over.


 

 

 

Dennis asked whether the valves are opening and closing. I think so.. with
the plugs out, the starter will spin the motor without any problem, and I
don't hear any bad noises coming out of the engine under those
circumstances.  John mentioned the one in a million busted crank.  I hope
that's not the case (of course).  This engine has never made any bad noises,
so I'm hoping that's a good sign that things are or might be OK inside.

 

Anyway, back to the voltage thing.  I reconnected the negative battery lead
and the voltmeter across.  With everything hooked up, the voltmeter reads
zero.  One by one, I disconnected every connection in the engine compartment
to see if any of them, unplugged, might return the battery to 12+ volts.
This included the positive to the coil, the petronix, the tail lights, the
license plate lights, etc.  I unplugged the harness to the front heading out
of the engine compartment.  Still zero volts.  Then, I slid under the truck
and disconnected the two smaller wires to the starter. still zero volts at
the battery.  Then, I disconnected the wire that goes directly from the
battery to the starter at the starter end.  The voltage at the battery shot
right backup above 12.  Put that wire on the starter, voltage returns to
zero.

 

Is it possible I got a bad starter from the vendor and that this starter is
bad in the same way as my original one?  One thing different about this
starter is that once I start cranking it, it keeps on cranking, even if I
let go of the key.  The one I took out didn't do that.

 

James Davis has suggested I do a compression check on the engine  That's not
quite so easy when the engine won't crank, but I'll see what I can do.

 

A few of you have suggested I try to turn the engine by hand.  I put a
wrench on it, and it turns without too much trouble.  I've nothing to
compare it to, but I didn't break a sweat turning it, it was bout like
tightening down a bolt.  The engine was silent as I did this.