This is starting to baffle me DEFINITELY need a think tank

[Sunbear]

**** ! You guys, this is starting to stress me out! I had a mechanic come over and we did more tests cleaned all the contacts on the positive and the grounds she fired right up.
Go to start her this morning and..chug.....chug....chug....chug. ..... And big pause chug and then she fired up alas it sounded.like she almost didnt start . I had the cut off switch off all night so there couldn't have been a battery drain on the new battery .
For all yall that haven't been following its a 97 5.9 cummins all mechanical 12 valve 12 volt 6bt motor brand new battery, starter and alternator less than a year old and this all started when I tried to start her in 12 degree weather and she just started clicking , since then I've gotten a new battery and like I said cleaned and tightend all the grounds and + contacts halp me!!!

[EastCoastCB]

Maybe try bypassing the cutoff switch, it could be the culprit, maybe.

[Sunbear]

I can try that but what would I do during down time I guess unhook the battery

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by Sunbear

I can try that but what would I do during down time I guess unhook the battery

IDK, I don't have a switch and my batteries stay good with infrequent use, but yeah just unhook the batteries I guess. If bypassing works, just buy a new switch.

[Robin97396]

Since your batter does seem to drain overnight I'd definitely take off a battery lead until you get that figured out.

Just out of curiosity have you checked the other end of your ground wire? Vehicles that sit a lot tend to get varnish on the ground contact quite easily. Take off the ground wire and rub the contact area with a bit of sandpaper, on the bus and the battery cable.

The contacts don't tend to loose conductivity while the vehicle is in frequent use.

[turf]

what size is your battery? get some voltage readings from it. then check voltage readings at the starter.

could be a bad starter cable. sometimes they corrode inside the coating.

[Sunbear]

Thank you for your response and yeah WE did that yesterday and only after this all started did the bus sit for two months otherwise I usually drive her a little every couple days as I live in s.f. And am always runin frim the parking nazis and street sweepers LOL

[slaughridge85]

Originally Posted by turf

could be a bad starter cable. sometimes they corrode inside the coating.

this, I would check starter and ground cables for any hard spots where the wire is difficult to bend or where the jacketing is visibly messed up. Generally when theres a hard spot in a cable it means the inside has turned into a wonderful green chunk of corrosion preventing the passage of electricity...

[Sunbear]

Hmmmm we did the drop test and everything seemed fine but I have to say when this problem originally started I saw some smoke coming off the starter mind you it was 12 degrees but I want to ask how do I check if the starter cable is bad?

[slaughridge85]

Take a multi meter and switch it to the ohm setting. Take one lead and hook it up to one end and the other lead and hook it up to the other end. Measure the resistance of the cable, it should be a very low number. Then look online and figure out what a cable that size and length should ohm out at. If the reading you take is much higher or there is no continuity between the ends of the wire then you have a bad cable.

[Sunbear]

Thank you for the advice

[family wagon]

0 gauge copper should have a resistance in the neighborhood of 0.1 milliohms per foot. Though a 4 digit DVM has precision to 1 milliohm, it may not have 1 milliohm accuracy. Check the resistance on the DVM with its leads shorted together and compare to the resistance shown when measuring a starter cable. They should be the same to within a milliohm or two, and the difference may tell you more about the meter's accuracy than about the cable..

If you have assistants then you could effectively check the cable resistance by measuring voltage drop instead. Set the DVM into a manual-ranging mode for something on the order of 2 volts. If you can disable the engine from starting this test will be a little easier. Securely hold one meter lead to battery ground and the other to the starter motor body. Then get somebody to crank the starter. Note the voltage on the meter. It may take a second or two of sustained starter cranking for the meter to display its measurement. Repeat the test measuring voltage from the battery positive to the starter solenoid output. I'd estimate that if either of these measures more than 0.5 volts then there's a problem in the section between the meter leads. You could move the meter leads around and measure the voltage drop in smaller increments to narrow it down.

Has anybody checked the connection between the starter motor and the transmission bell housing? That's the ground path for the starter motor. If the bolts and mounting faces aren't clean, or if the starter is not bolted down snug, these could cause a starting problem too. Arcing at a loosely-mounted starter might create the smoke you remember seeing near the starter..

If the battery is new, the starter is new, neither has any defects, starter mounting is good, and the connection at each end of every cable is clean, and resistance or voltage drop tests are too complicated.. then start replacing the cables that connect between the battery, starter, and engine block. At least one of them would have to be faulty.

[Rameses]

Originally Posted by turf

what size is your battery? get some voltage readings from it. then check voltage readings at the starter.

could be a bad starter cable. sometimes they corrode inside the coating.

Some anecdotal evidence that this is a real thing... Not a battery cable, but an ignition wire in my case. This was on an old rollback truck I had. Probed the wire until I found where the voltage stopped, and then made a little slit...

[powderskier]

On my 5.9 12v it needs two batteries to start it. It seems you are talking about one battery. Need about 200 rpm on the starter. Hope that helps

[Rameses]

Originally Posted by powderskier

On my 5.9 12v it needs two batteries to start it. It seems you are talking about one battery. Need about 200 rpm on the starter. Hope that helps

Depends on what the battery is, but that's a good point.

If it's an 8D, you should be fine with only one, but anything else and two is the way to go.

[Sunbear]

It is a big old 8d

[Sunbear]

Well the starter is toast good thing it has avwaranty but some rinky dink shop in salem oh well lesson learned THANK you everyone ive learned so much this break down

[Robin97396]

You're welcome. We offer a money back guarantee on all free advice.