Hello all, I am new to this forum. I recently purchased a 5.0L swapped 2002 ranger from a guy in Oklahoma. The motor/wiring loom are from a 2000 mercury mountaineer, and the trans is from a 98 f150, everything worked including lights etc. The day after I brought it back, the starter died. I replaced the starter but it wouldn't turn the engine over (I believe the starter is not meshing with the flywheel). I have been trying to diagnose the issue over many days now. I went to reground the starter today and went to turn the key, I lost all dash lights and now I got nothing when I turned the key. Anyone have any ideas? I've been looking at all the fuses and everything seems ok but the dash is dead and nothing happens when I turn the key. Thanks

 

Welcome to the forum

Battery terminals are FIRST on the list to check, both terminals, remove clean(cable end and terminal) and reconnect

Then follow each battery cable to where it attaches, remove clean and reconnect.

Starter motors often come in TWO flavors, for manual transmissions with a flywheel and for automatics with a flexplate, you must get correct starter motor for gears to engage.

"Reground the starter"?

The larger Negative battery cable often connects to engine via starter motors bellhousing bolt, but bare metal engine block ground is also OK
Starter motor needs 60-75amps of electrical power to turn engine over, which is the highest single amp draw in the whole system
So the larger positive and negative battery cables are placed to allow for that high amperage.
i.e. larger positive cable to starter motor itself, larger negative cable to starter motor's case or engine block

Electricity must travel in a loop, and that loop must have the same capacity throughout or it won't work.

Battery positive----60amps----------starter motor-------10amps---------Battery negative

In the above the maximum amps in this circuit is 10amps, because thats the most the circuit can take because of poor connection or cable on the Negative side
Positive could have 1,000amps, doesn't matter, with electricity the whole system is "bottlenecked" by the lowest AMP section.

Think of driving on a one lane uphill mountain road behind an RV towing a big boat, lol, your maximum speed it set by the RVs speed, doesn't matter how fast you "can" go, your speed is limited by the slowest vehicle ahead of you, and thats how electricity works.

So check those connections

 

Excellent analogy/example on currents.

The starter's ground wire was melted at one spot and exposed bare wire, at some point it touched the chassis and shorted when I turned the key last. Ever since this short, the dash/ignition do not work. However, I have fixed the exposed wire, and now I'm tracking down the issue with my dash, ignition, etc.

I was originally trying to replace the starter which was for a 96 f150 flywheel, the trans is from a 98 f150. The new starter does not mesh correctly with the flywheel and just grinds on key turn. I originally thought it was a power issue but the previous starter worked fine before it broke and turned the motor no problem. I replaced the broken one with the same f150 model year and manual version.

Two issues now exploding in my face.

 

If a ground wire shorted by touching the chassis, you have more problems. You're missing ground wires/straps.
There should be ground wires from battery to the engine, the frame and from engine to the body of the truck, no such thing as to many grounds.

 

He's probably referring to the wire that connects on to the solenoid, which is obviously not a ground wire and I could see that shorting out if it was bare in places, the area is quite tight.
With out checking, I think it's yellow.
The other is the big red one from the battery.

 

A bit confused on that part as well, Ground for starter shorted to chassis?

A ground can't short to a ground

If a battery cable melts it means it can't handle the amps at that spot in the cable so heats up and melts the insulation, no "repair" for that, have to replace the cable, it is corroded internally

 

I don't have a ground wire on the starter. I have a ground wire on the block but not the starter

 

I'm not sure what's going on, But a ground wire CAN NOT be shorted out by touching the chassis. A ground wires job is to touch the chassis.
Now if the wire is corroded under the insulation, or has bad connections at either end it can overheat and melt the insulation and possibly catch fire, but it CAN NOT short out by touching the chassis.

I still think you are missing a ground wire/strap or 2.

 

Have you checked the fuses and fusible links with a multi-meter to be sure they actually good?

 

This is common, as long as it is on bare metal on the block.
I have seen issues come up after people painted the block and then installed ground strap/cable without cleaning off the paint under that connection.

Starter motor bolt ground is usually on bare metal starter and bellhousing, so paint thing doesn't come up

 

I apologize for the confusion I may have caused, I'll try my best to explain the situation.

I fixed my short problem, my set up has a ground cable (yellow) that goes to the ground on the starter, and a power cable (red) to the starter. I have since repaired the exposed wire, and fixed the popped fuse that killed my dash. I also made sure of all my ground points and actually regrounded the battery, it was originally loose the way the last guy had it. Everything works again but the damn starter still won't mesh and spin the motor.

This whole problem started with me replacing the broken starter. My tranny is a M5OD-R2 from a f150, I have a fly wheel and starter from a 96 5.0L manual f150. The current issue is that the starter bendix will not mesh with the fly wheel. It is constantly grinding against the face of the fly wheel. I think it was an issue with the new starter and have since returned it. I am in the process of getting a new one, but I wanted y'alls input as what you think the issue could be. Could it be not enough amp/power to the starter or like I believe, the starter is purely not meshing with the flywheel.

The old starter worked fine and had no issues turning the motor. However, this new one would not mesh. I marked the fly wheel with a marker and the starter was in fact not turning the flywheel.

Thanks again for all the reply's my guys

 

You got the wrong starter, correct one will fix the problem.

It happens, I have gotten parts with correct numbers that don't fit............shipped in the wrong box or stamped with the wrong number.
Parts guy didn't goof, or me, lol, factory did

 

 

After some research I found that I needed to shave about 1/16th off of the block plate for the starter to fit and work correctly. I have no issues now starting the truck. Thanks for the input.