I have a year 2000 Thor/ Four winds Hurricane on the Ford F53 Chassis. The RV has around 22,000 miles and is in great condition. I started it up today (29 degrees) and drove it about 1/4 mile to an area where I park it to run the generator monthly to keep it in tune. The RV started and ran perfect. I shut the engine off while I was parked. After about 10 to 15 mins with the engine off I decided to start the engine in order to leave and go back to my parking spot. Well as you can tell from the title, it did not start. I did not get any starter noise or cranking noise. There is NO clicking or turning over of the engine. The battery is perfect as I keep it on a trickle charger, and all the lights and all other electrical works fine and I have 12.9 volts on a voltmeter. For some strange reason the engine will not start. Again, NO clicking, NO cranking, NO nothing. All I hear is the sound of the electrical relay sending power to the starter. Does this sound like the starter died ? or does it sound like a loose wire or corroded wire or bad ground somewhere ? I checked the position of the shifter to be sure that it is all the way completely pushed to the left in the Park setting since my 2001 Ford f150 will also not start if the shifter is a bit off from the Park notch setting in the column shifter. I made sure that the column shifter in the Motorhome is securely in the park position and nothing happened. I even tried the Neutral setting but nothing there also. It will not start, crank, click or even make any sound. I will have it towed tomorrow, but I am wondering if the Ford F53 has any weakness or known issues that anyone is aware of that might cause this problem ? Would a starter just seize or die like that ? Any things that I need to check first ? Thanks Mark

NO "clicking"? That would mean the solinoid TO the starter is not getting any "juice". And the solinoid, as far as I know is BEFORE the starter motor. Might be a loose battery cable. Or the ignition switch went bad. Even the solinoid might have gone bad. A hundred things.Whatever is is, I hope it's simple.As far as I know, Ford has no chronic problems of this nature.G'luck and let us know what the problem was.

If all you hear " is the sound of the electrical relay sending power to the starter" then that eliminates everything but a problem with or at the starter itself. If that solenoid is clicking then that means the P/N safety switch is fine, ignition switch is doing its thing and any sort of anti-theft requirements have been satisfied. The solenoid is the last step in the cranking process. So, it could be a faulty connection between the solenoid and starter or (more likely) the starter itself. All that being said, while not impossible, they don't usually fail suddenly. You'll typically get intermittent slow- or no-cranks as a warning. I would try banging on the starter while someone held the key in the "start" position (but only for a few seconds at a time).

Sorry but it sounds like a starter to me, My starter on my truck just this past week did the same thing. We where out, Made six or seven stops came home, went out to move the truck a hour later and all it would do is click. Ever tried jumping it, No luck. It now has a new starter

On the starter there is a smaller wire usually a push on spade terminal adjacent to the battery cable. Make sure this connection is good.Ford had a lot of problems with corrosion on these terminals. Many replacement starters come with a wire soldered on that you splice to original wire.worth checking dave

When you turn the key to start do all the lights on the dash come on? With the headlights on, when you turn to start, do the lights dim?

Ford F53 V10 will not start - Any ideas ? | Good Sam Community

FC
Explorer
Dec 31, 2013
We used the. Good Sam road service on a Friday afternoon while sitting at a rest stop west of Chicago. They sent a mobile mechanic who arrived in 45 minutes and who really researched the problem and traced the bad connection and fixed it in 50 minutes and we continued our trip. I paid the service about $ 150 which was very reasonable. Excellent mobile mechanic. If not for him we would have been towed to a garage and probably would have spent the weekend there waiting for a mechanic on Monday.
Good Sam and the service provider were great. In this case.
kratedisease
Explorer
Dec 31, 2013
Apparently the issue was the starter relay. But I had the shop put in a new starter just in case and to make sure I had all my bases covered...I do not want to get stuck again.

Thank you all for the wonderful help. From what was posted here i had the mechanic focus in on the starter relay. The information posted here was VERY helpful. And I want to thank EVERYONE that posted on my thread . Thanks again for all of your help. Much Appreciated .

Buy the way, Good Sam roadside assist only took 4 hours to show up to tow me,,,,, whatever !!
2Bargos
Explorer
Dec 26, 2013
dakdave wrote:
On the starter there is a smaller wire usually a push on spade terminal adjacent to the battery cable.
Make sure this connection is good.Ford had a lot of problems with corrosion on these terminals.
Many replacement starters come with a wire soldered on that you splice to original wire.worth checking
dave

The spade terminal is the key switch wire.it activates the solenoid.I have never seen one with a soldered wire on it. the earlier ones used the spade and around 96 and later ford switched to a threaded terminal.

Because of the location of the solenoid on ford engines they are prone to corrision.I would check my connections here first.
2bzy2c
Explorer II
Dec 26, 2013
Also, the turn signals would not work as well as the running lights.
FIRE_UP
Explorer
Dec 26, 2013
bycrackey wrote:
the same one that a zillion thieves knew about and use a tiny piece of wire and a pair of pliers to start the car and steal it),

u also have to hot wire the coil/ignition system also or have the ignition to run
just jumping the solenoid will simply turn the starter

bycrackey,
You're absolutely right but, in the older systems, that's what the tiny piece of wire was for. If you ran it from the big battery post on the left side of that relay, to the "I" terminal, you had "Ignition" that way. And there for, using the pliers handles to cross the other two terminals, would turn the starter over, and, you had a running car/truck. I know 'cause we used our friends moms car several times like that.
But, in doing it that way, you had NO CHARGING GOING TO THE BATTERY. So, we could play only for a little while and had to return the car before it died, 'cause we did all this at night.
Scott
kratedisease
Explorer
Dec 26, 2013
Thanks for the valuable information .....I will notify my mechanic to look at this first.
carringb
Explorer
Dec 26, 2013
That relay is a common failure point. Parts stores can easily look it up as a "Fender-mount starter relay" for Ford trucks and vans, if they can't find the correct motorhome listing.

I carry a spare with me now, since I have had 3 go out already (granted, I'm closing in on 370,000 miles).
bycrackey
Explorer
Dec 26, 2013
the same one that a zillion thieves knew about and use a tiny piece of wire and a pair of pliers to start the car and steal it),

u also have to hot wire the coil/ignition system also or have the ignition to run
just jumping the solenoid will simply turn the starter
FIRE_UP
Explorer
Dec 26, 2013
Flanz wrote:
427435 wrote:
The most likely problem isn't the starter itself but this:

It is the starter solenoid or relay. Before you pay for a starter, either replace it or be sure you have full voltage on the starter side of it when the key is turned to start (or for that matter, full voltage to it before you try to start the engine).

BINGO!! Same thing on my 2000 F53. It's located on the top passenger side of the radiator. Replaced mine about 6yrs ago. I think I paid about $20 big ones for it.

What you can do is jumper around it and verify if the motor will start.

Flantz has the perfect answer in:

"What you can do is jumper around it and verify the motor will start". Yes, if in fact, Ford is using this same exact starter relay that it used since the beginning of time, yes, the same one that a zillion thieves knew about and use a tiny piece of wire and a pair of pliers to start the car and steal it), then you can jumper that solenoid and see if it, in fact, is the problem.

If, when you jumper that solenoid, and the starter still just "clicks", then you've narrowed it down to either the connections at the starter, or, the starter itself. It would be good to know if this is the correct answer. It's too bad that you have to tow it. Because replacing that solenoid, if it's the culprit, and or, replacing that starter is quite simple and, very cheap, if you do it yourself. Good luck.
Scott
BobandShaz
Explorer
Dec 26, 2013
If you have anti theft on the RV it will need to be disabled to allow a complete circuit for the started

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Ford F53 V10 will not start - Any ideas ?

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