sy has hard time starting

[cvcsmkr]

i just picked up a beautiful sy. and the truck seems like it has a hard time starting the previous owner said he's had to replace the starter twice. he bought one (i think at autozone) it has a lifetime warranty. and just last night it actually didn't start i waited a minute and it still didn't start tried it again and it started up. do all of the sy's have trouble starting? i would rather just change it out than get stranded somewhere. what starters do you recommend or is this "normal"?..............chad

drove the truck today 10/14
okay here is a little more info.

when driving the sy today. when you turn the key i can here something click(whether its the solenoid or not i dont know) but the engine doesn't crank at all. then i can return the key back to off and try it again and the truck will crank and start up, and stay on. i noticed the "purple" wire it comes from behind the throttle body and runs along the firewall then along the fender and goes down and from there i can not see. but what i can see the wire is perfect.

so what could it be? starter, solenoid?

 

[ed hess]

replace small purple wire going to the starter.

ed

very common problem it gets fried over time from heat.

 

[ItsMyTy]

On mine the solenoid would get heat soaked sitting right next to the downpipe after running and shutting the truck off for an hour or so... turn the key and it would just click. Checked the purple wire and it was fine. So I ordered a CVR mini starter from Jeg's that is supposed to hold up in high heat situations. It's been working great.

 

[InvisiBill]

It's not the starter itself. It's the starter solenoid, which is triggered by the purple wire. This is part of the whole ignition circuit, including the keyswitch and all that stuff. Over time, the stuff wears out enough that the solenoid doesn't get enough juice to work reliably.

You have a few options. You can do any or all of these. Note that fixing something that isn't the main problem may improve things enough to make it work for a while, but still not fix the real cause.

1) Tahoe starter. The Tahoe starter is a direct bolt-in replacement and is a newer design that isn't as affected by heat. The better starter shouldn't be as picky about how much juice it needs to work.

2) Purple wire. This is usually the biggest problem. It's a relatively small wire near the downpipe. The heat increases the resistance and makes it even worse. Simply splicing in a bigger wire and heatshielding it might fix all your problems.

3) "Hotshot" relay. This separates the starter solenoid power circuit from the rest of the ignition circuit. You hook up the relay to a hot source (like the battery) and the starter solenoid (where the purple wire goes). Then you trigger the relay with the old purple wire. The ignition circuit/purple wire only has to have enough juice to trip the relay. Then the starter solenoid gets its power straight from the battery. You can use a Ford solenoid instead of buying a hotshot relay kit - they do the same thing. Some people have spliced the solenoid into the main starter power wire, and made the whole thing switched (and bridged the main terminal to the solenoid terminal). I don't recommend this, as you're then messing with the main starter power line, which isn't the problem, just to avoid running a solenoid wire down there. But you still have to splice into the main wire, and put the bridge on the starter, so it seems like even more trouble to me...

 

[Methuselah]

What do you mean by "it didnt start"?

Did the starter click but the engine didnt crank? Did the engine crank but not start up? Did the engine start up then stall out?
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Nb50

 

[cvcsmkr]

the engine stays running once its started. it does not try to crank i did not notice if the solenoid was clicking or not.

thanks for all the help i'll check out that stuff tommorrow.

where exactly is the starter? do you access it from below the truck or from the top? i dont have a lot of mechanical experience. i have changed struts and radios and stuff before. is this very difficult? i do know electrical.
chad

 

[Jimmy]

where exactly is the starter? do you access it from below the truck or from the top?

You bought the wrong vehicle man.If you need help finding the starter,you better sell the Sy whlie it still runs :wink:

 

[SY2932]

where exactly is the starter? do you access it from below the truck or from the top?

You bought the wrong vehicle man.If you need help finding the starter,you better sell the Sy whlie it still runs :wink:

Hey, I resemble that remark ! Before I got my truck, I never even changed oil :-? ... But, you have to start somewhere. My suggestion is to go out and buy a Haynes repair manual and read, read, read and then read some more. Of course, it won't help you for anything involving the turbocharger . But, everything else is like the bazillion other S10/S15's on the road. I learned a lot from the list and syty.net. Meeting other owners helped TONS!

Here's a past topic on starters/purple wires etc: http://syty.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=24402 Use the search function and you will find many more discussions on starting problems. HTH's

Mike Campbell

 

[cvcsmkr]

well as far as jimmy goes, i am sure you didn't come out of the womb knowing about cars.:wink:

thanks for the help guys.

and what is the "list"?

 

[ed hess]

JIMMY

go easy on him, we all have to start somewhere, even if it is on the bleeding edge

fwiw, even though i could have the 1st 12 years i had my truck, i paid someone else to change my oil and spark plugs! imagine that!

Then again once i got off my 6 and got motivated i came a long way in the past 12 months!

ed

 

[cvcsmkr]

okay here is a little more info.

when driving the sy today. when you turn the key i can here something click(whether its the solenoid or not i dont know) but the engine doesn't crank at all. then i can return the key back to off and try it again and the truck will crank and start up, and stay on. i noticed the "purple" wire it comes from behind the throttle body and runs along the firewall then along the fender and goes down and from there i can not see. but what i can see the wire is perfect.

so what could it be? starter, solenoid?

 

[ed hess]

it might look perfect on the outside and still have to much resistance inside.

fwiw mine looked good to, chnaged to the painless wiring with bumpstart relay and the same problem went away.

ed

 

[cvcsmkr]

i think i am going to go with the reomte solenoid setup. with that f492g solenoid from autozone. and i'll replace that purple wire while i'm at it.
what do you guys think? does anybody have a detailed diagram for this setup?...chad

 

[SY2932]

You can join the "list" here: http://www.syty.org/ . *WARNING* when I joined the list a few years ago, I would get over 100 emails in my mailbox regarding sytys, EVERYDAY. Some folks get overwhelmed and ask to be removed pretty quickly. I'm not on the list anymore so, I can't say if the volume of email is still the same or not.

Yup, you have all the symptoms of the dreaded "purple wire syndrome" . It especially likes to manifest itself after you have driven somewhere far away and try to start with no success :evil: . Purple wire gets heat soaked and no start. Let it sit for awhile and cool off then it will start...

Jesse A's site http://www.syty.huryde.com/ has a full write up with pics in the tech section under starter (where I got the information to do mine and my bud's truck from). Unfortunately, he is in the process of getting a new host so it is down at the moment. Doing this mod is somewhat involved if you aren't equiped with the proper tools... If Jesse doesn't get his site back up soon, I will do a full write up for you. The how to, pics and diagram on his site make it easy to see exactly what you have to do.

Some would say that the starter mod mentioned above is overkill but, I'm the kind of person that likes to swat flies with a sledgehammer :wink: . By slamming the solenoid on the starter with the full voltage of the battery, it WILL start. You can really hear a difference in the way the starter spins, it spins much quicker and doesn't load up as much. Everyone that I know has went this route has had no complaints whatsoever. HTH's

Mike Campbell

 

[Tooky]

I couldn't change oil or do nearly anything to a vehicle besides drive it, when I bought my truck in 2001. Now I change oil because I like it and I can do turbo swap, I can pull a distributor in 3 minutes, I can change spark plugs in 20 min, etc. This winter I remove and replace my transmission and I know I can do it! So dont feel bad if you start off where I did.

As for the starter, my click-click got to be too annoying on the factory starter and I needed to drain the engine block coolant anyway which requires removing the starter to access the pipe. (WTF!?) I searched SyTy and did the Advance Auto Parts P6049S (or whatever, double check the post for the correct P/N) ministarter from a "98 Tahoe" I think. All I can say is it has worked flawlessly even when the engine is super hot sitting in staging lanes and started over and over as the line moves. The lady at Advanced tried to talk me out of this super expensive $125 starter when all normal customers buy the $30 one. I insisted because I trust the SyTy.net forum conclusions. So far I haven't needed anything but the new starter (or soleniod, since it came with the starter). I didn't do the "Relay" setup because there's already too much shit under the hood of my truck.

 

[Bill Z]

sy has hard time starting

cvcsmkr,

When I got my Typhoon, I had the same problem and I did a search on this forum and read all of these solutions. I was tempted to install the solenoid. Maybe it was luck but my aftermarket security system went out. The brain got fried and would not work or program. I decided to install the new security system my self. I then noticed that most everything under my dash had those crimp on cable connectors. In fact, due to the number of connectors in just one wire, I figured my truck had had three different security systems (one at a time). The wires used were of varying sizes. I pulled most all of the old security stuff out and when I installed my new system, I did as the manufacture suggested and soldered each connection (no crimp connectors). Doing this solved my starting problem (almost a year now and through the summer). Some of the crimp connections would limit the amount of current to the starter. Plus some of the wire was much too small.

So, the solenoid may re-rout the current but there may be a cheaper fix. Yes, time is money and it took me a day to clean up someone else’s mess.

Just so you know another option.

 

[Syclone#2960]

I Installed the 1996 454 big block starter today and it sound like a jeep cheerokee starter(4 those of u who had or have 1).I took back the old one and the POS works.The solenoid nut came loose and that was the problem.
Just my 2 cents.
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Tv discussion

 

[cvcsmkr]

installed the hot shot relay in oct. hasn't done the problem since then. still slow on crank, but at least it cranks and starts everytime.

 

[schavez]

what is the part# for the CVR mini starter

what is the part# for the CVR mini starter

what is the part# for the CVR mini starter

 

[Jimmy]

Re: what is the part# for the CVR mini starter

Re: what is the part# for the CVR mini starter

what is the part# for the CVR mini starter

http://www.syty.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=26657