Hey how's it goin, I'm new to this forum...my dad is having trouble with his 1988 power ram 100 (which he is selling to me) so I hope we can find some help. The truck on 3 occasions has broke down in heavy snow conditions (the big storms on the east coast lately). I was driving it from his house to use for work the next day and it was running like someone threw their sneakers in the dryer. About half a mile down the road it finally gives out and has to get towed. I've been doing some troubleshooting so I'll tell you what I know and have found out.

--distributor cap gets soaked with water due to no covering being under the windshield,, also no shielding under the engine, it's wide open under there---replaced the cap and rotor and covered it (the metal plug in the cap for the ignition wire fell out of the old one).
--found a SECOND ground coming from the negative battery terminal...apparently the origional had gotten very broken up and loose and was just hanging on a piece of metal after a new one was put on. we noticed it after we saw sparking and smoking coming from the negative terminal---i removed the old ground and checked the new one, looks good and no smoking/sparking
--checked the ignition coil, it's sparking

still no starting and now all there is is rapid clicking when the key is turned even when being charged for 20+ minutes from another car.

--tested the battery, it read 13 volts even after all the constant cranking efforts.
--fuel pump comes on, starter clicks on, and you can hear all the usual ignition stuff coming on when the key is clicked to the on position, but still no cranking, just clicking
--ran a jumper from the positive terminal to the starter, starter turns on but no crank

Ok, if you were patient enough to read all that, thank you. Here's the deal, we are assuming that the car was stalling due to the cap being so bad that pieces were starting to fall out of it. Now we're thinking that between all the sparking, smoking, and constant cranking, we killed the starter so I'm planning on buying one tomorrow morning and installing it. What do you think?? I was told also to check the pick up on the distributor. What I don't understand is if the cap and stuff is getting wet and that's the problem, why no problems in the rain??? I'm also thinking that the heavy snow getting all up in the engine from the underside is probably causing a lot of steam under the hood which must be getting stuff wet because i heard it hissing and melting and saw steam when it shut off (which i assumed to be overheating till i checked it out). I know it's a huge first post, thanks a lot for checking it out.

 

if your getting spark i would have to guess you are having a fuel problem. the easiest way to test it is pour some gas down the throtle body. if it starts then it was a fuel problem.

 

It always helps if we know what engine we are working on but I assume this is a 318 from what you have said. If parts of the cap are falling off it must be old. I would suggest a full tune up before you try to start it again. If the wires are bad a small amount of snow or moisture will really effect performance.

Have you cleaned both battery terminals so that you have the best connection possible? You can't really charge a battery with another car. All you will get is a surface charge that will not last long. A battery charger is needed to deep charge a battery. I would charge the battery before I replaced the starter as your symptoms can indicate a weak battery or a starter problem. A battery can still read 13 volts and not have the amperage to start a vehicle.

Blowing snow can get places a water droplet can't because snow is smaller and lighter than water. When I get done plowing I usually have snow on the engine especially with a light powdery snow. If your ignition system is in good shape a small amount of moisture will not effect it.

 

i had the same problem last week and i took my cables off the battery and clened them and the ground cable off and clened it and then it started right upbut in the rain for some reson my will die from time to time so i just take and put a bag over my eletronics and one over my coil i have a distributer in the front but i think some thing picks up the wather and throughs it up under there but maybe thats not your problem and maybe your bendix in your starter went out from getting water or snow or something inside your starter like said above engine size would help

 

If the starter turns does it engage into the flywheel or does free spin? If it free spins and doesnt engage the flywheel I see two possiblilties. One sometimes when a starter disengages from the flywheel it will get stuck in the "detached position" this can be an easy fix... WHACK IT with a hammer a couple times to "unjam it". Two you may have missing teeth in you"re flywheel and the starter is spinning in the gap. I say hit it a few times (not to hard to cause damage). And if that doesnt work pull the starter and take a look at the flywheel through the gap. Hope all this helps dude.!!! good luck. Note: more info on make and model would be helpful.

 

Thanks a lot for the help guys. Basically the battery was dead and the starter was totally done in. We replaced the battery and starter and got new terminals, put a new cap, rotor, and hall effect switch in. The battery and starter were definitely necessary, but AFTER all that was done and it still didn't start, come to find out I misread the firing order in my manual... In any case, it is running, but poorly. It's still making the clunking/knocking noise it did when it started dying on us all the time (always seemed to die driving in a foot of snow). I'm an amatuer home mechanic so to me it doesn't seem like it's missing as much as knocking...like, I'm actually hearing clunking noises but not in any repetetive time, it's just erratic (kind of reminds you of sneakers in the dryer in the basement while you're upstairs...kind of muffled). Now, the noise was noticeably louder the times it shut off so I'm not sure what's up, and I can't really hear it outside of the truck, only when I'm in it, could all this noise be the exhaust??? What I also noticed was that the '4 wheel drive engaged' light on the message center was fading in and out once about every second...like pulsing as if the alternator was going, but it's the only light that does it, headlights and interior light are fine. Here are some things I noticed since the owner of the truck never seemed to pay any mind to checking fluids, etc. When I checked the oil all it had was some light tan-ish colored sludge coming up about a 1/4 inch up the dipstick. I don't know it it's cos it sat in the cold for like 2 weeks but anyways I added a couple quarts and checked it and the oil level was ok, just jet black. Then I noticed that the gasket on the transmission pan was all tore up and hanging out and it was leaking quite a bit. I checked it (running it in neutral) and it was way low, so I put some in to bring it up but I may have put a little too much. It was hard to read because each side of the dipstick had different levels when I kept pulling it out. In any case, the truck is still running like that after the addition of trans fluid and oil. I plan doing an oil change and putting some seafoam or something in it and let it run a few days and then do another oil change with some Lucasoil added. I'm taking a look in the troubleshooting in my manual uder where it talks about loping while idling and idling erratically, and the sections on missing at idle or driving speed but there's a lot to cover and I got no garage in this freezing weather so I'm hoping to narrow it down a little. I'll probably check the pcv and a few little things but I think I really need to find someone who has much more experience than me to actually hear it and see it. I honestly don't know if any of the above would even be related to the problem but it's worth a shot to throw it out there I guess. Thanks again

 

Sorry, I forgot to mention that the headlight switch was recently replaced by a 'professional' but the damn open door buzzer will stay on with the door closed unless you mess around turning the **** back and forth till it stops, just thought I'd add that. Again, thank you so much for taking the time to read these.

 

the buzzer is an easy fix. therer is this little yellow box under the dash unplug it and the buzzer will stop. the knock could be cause by a bad sparkplug wire or the hall-effect being broken. it might be a good idea to try checking your spark plugs and see if there is any that looks like it is soaked and not firing.

 

Dag gone, a bad wire could really be causing such a crazy noise? I've only driven the truck a couple times so I'm really not familiar at all with how they're actually supposed to sound or anything. I had a 98 ranger that missed and I could feel it but not really hear it....but like I said I'm totally unfamiliar with these trucks for the time being. I will check it out. As a matter of fact I bought new plugs and wires but didn't get a chance to put them in so I'll give it a shot. I did put a new hall effect in tho just a couple days ago so it should be good. By the way does the little yellow box have tons of wires coming out of it? I noticed a box hanging out of the dash but I dunno if it's the one you mean. Oh and it's a 318

 

yes the yellow box with 6 wire going to it. 1 bad wire can cause you truck to run like crap or not even run at all. i had 1 wire with a gash in it and it made my truck run like crap and cause it to stall when i stepped on the gas. i could see it arcing. if you have a sparkplug that is not firing that can cause an engine to knock(i learned that after i forgot to hook up one of my sparkplug wires on day).