Truck won't start

For $1K I will drive to him and pull the starter. If he pays for mileage I will go get it tested.
I just don’t understand why we ruled this out?

 

Not everyone likes them, some say they don't last as long but I say get the gear reduction starter. It's way lighter and turns over way faster and easier than the factory starter

 

Volvo dealer can give you part #s for anything on the Truck Per vin#. You can pull the starter, be sure to take pictures, and keep wires straight. Zip tie together the ones for each post. Don’t need a screw up, at this point. One bolt very hard to get to, but not impossible. New starter, clean connections, clean grounds to frame. You asked about smoke on start up. I wouldn’t worry about it, my fresh Overhauled engine was blowing some white smoke, when I started it this evening, Condesation? Who knows. My old Cat used to spit cough and miss terrible when cold.

 

Once you are rolling

Once you are rolling it will steer fairly easily. And you don't have to go fast to pull start 5-10 mile and hour wi

It amazes me how clueless some parts guys are. Pretty sure cat has used the same starter for many many years. The factory starter ways a ton so be ready for it. The gear reduction starter is way smaller in size and weight

 

I understand your frustration on this and really want to see get this thing started and on the road making $, that’s why I am still here after 35 pages and counting!
I am no mechanic by any means but have had my fair share of challenging projects. I live on a farm and stuff always break around here and usually at the most inconvenient time. I consider myself to be pretty good at trouble shooting.
I did watch both videos, one cranking after new cables and batteries and one with a jumper to starter and to the batteries. I didn’t see any difference between the cranking speed at all, a red flag to me. My troubleshooting would tell me to replace the starter and rule that out before I did anything else. Bumping it would certainly tell you if it was the starter but that doesn’t appear to be an option and I understand why.
The truck ran when you parked it. It’s not just all of sudden going to not fire and need a rebuild. You would have noticed that motor spitting, sputtering, white smoke billowing form the exhaust and a whole list of other issues when you drove it home.
The natural progression of ruling out the issue now takes you to the starter. I would pull the starter, @Rideandrepair walked you through the process and we both noted you have one bolt that is hard to reach but not impossible. I can’t remember the bolt size or I would tell you that as well.
Remove the starter and go get it tested. My local auto parts store could not test the motor because they told me it is was too big for their test stand so I just bought a new rebuilt one. You have a CAT 3496 e ( I have been reading your posts) while mine is a ISX. My starter was almost $400 and you have been given an estimate basically from $200-$400.
For me, @lester and a few others, we would just replace the starter regardless while we have it out. At most this is worth the $400 gamble and I would be willing to bet if you have it towed the starter would get replaced anyway, probably the first thing the shop would do and just tell you that the stated needed replaced along with whatever else they replaced if that didn’t fix the issue. Just read some of the other posts where shops through replacement parts at issues until they fix the issue.
I have hung in here for this long......partly because I want to see you get this running, partly because I read through most threads trying to arm myself for what ultimately I might be faced with and partly because I ain’t going anywhere due to the virus thingy......remember I live in Ohio as well and not much is open.