in pulling up various starter pics for cat and freightliner. looks like there is a battery terminal and a power termnal. you can take a screwdriver or something to that effect and touch the two terminals. supplying power from the battery terminal to the power terminal. that should kick the solenoid in and make the motor crank. if not then the motor is bad.

that power terminal gets it power from the key when you crank it. so your supplying power from the battery terminal right on the starter. if it cranks your golden. there is a problem with the key's electrical. if it still won't crank then the starter is bad. of course, you'll want the key on so it starts. if you can get it to crank.

BE VERY CAREFUL NOT TO TOUCH ANY PART OF THE MOTOR OR FRAME OR OTHER METAL. YOU'LL BASICALLY BE CREATING A SHORT IN THE BATTERIES, (MUCH LIKE TOUCHING THE TWO BATTERY TERMINALS). THAT'S A LOT OF AMPS. YOU COULD DO SOME DAMAGE TO THE TRUCK COMPUTER. OR WORSE.

or if you can find a wire you can use from a source you know has power. you can try touching that on the power terminal of the starter. i'm hoping you have fairly easy access to the starter motor.

make sure all the battery cables are tight first though.

pharm,

seriously what is/isnt it doing?
its really hard to troubleshoot with no symtoms

then again it is a pete.........basicly a shaker with a PACCAR badge.......lol






















that outta get 379 onry.....lol

So thats how you guys stay awake in the up and ova?



Rob, you need somone with a bit of electrical nous.

my last two trucks had intermitant problems on the key. as in it wouldnt crank, but everything would power up.

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Life is like a ride on the Freeway, Dodging bullets while your trying to find your way.

Theres more to life than only surviving.

NOTHING I've found is more frustrating than electrical problems. And intermittent ones are even worse.

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Careful bangin' away with a hammer. You can bust the magnets in that started all to he77. Then if it turns out to be just a solenoid, you'll be buying both. Worse comes to worse you could get someone to air you up through your glad hands, drop your trailer and get a pull start. Just don't kill it again until you can get it looked at or figure out whats going on.

I hate electrical problems too. The power wire to the computer broke inside the insulation on my old petercar one time. Made enough connection to run 90% of the time. But I could be haulin down the road and it would just shut down like you turned the key off, sputter a few times a fire back off. Sometimes it wouldn't fire back off. I thought I would never figure it out. Just lucky that I through a fit and started kickin' and pulling on stuff. Grabbed the right handfull of wire and it shut down. Got it fired back off and did it again. Finally isolated the wire that was causing it and called a stealership to see if they could tell me what it went too. Main power for the ECM. Ended up pulling the whole wire, repined a new one and slapped it back together. They said it could have been broken but still making a connection until the wire started to heat and the insulation expanded. Breaking the connection.




I'm just gonna go outside and kick rocks for awhile.

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Is that your truck in your Avatar? I swear I've seen you on I29, probably a month and a half ago or so. Nice rig.

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Nope. I stole that one. I'm too lazy to shrink down a picture. lol

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when i said hit. i wasn't meaning smacking the crap out of it. hitting the starter motor itself, and not the actual solenoid part of it. don't wanna bust the thing up.

LOL Shoot. I like the lime green with the white. I've seen the green with black, but it doesn't stand out as much, I guess.

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Yeah I dig lime green. I built a little DCP truck and painted it up white/lime green.

Lemme see if I can find a picture.





Thats about as close to driving as I get these days.. lol

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