99' 7.3L wouldn't start, battery dead help!

[Km_rogers]

Alright I'll start from the beginning. Let me start by saying my husband knows his truck better than he probably knows me Every noise, how much power, I swear he knows somethings wrong before it even happens.

A couple weeks ago it started acting funny when you would try to start it. He'd turn the key, wait for the "wait to start" light to go off and then try and start it. It would make the normal starting noise, however it wouldn't turn over. So he'd lay off the key, and you could hear a small winding noise, a click, and he'd try again and it would start right up.

So this would happen every once in a while. Then this morning it did the same thing, however it just wouldn't start. The battery was drained. So he put a charger on it, let it sit and called me to start it a few hours later. It turned right over like nothing ever happened.

There were no lights left on, factory stereo, no remote start, nothing that could have obviously drained the battery. The batteries were fine till he tried a few too many times to start it.
I know when it wouldn't start before he would mess with the solenoid a little and it would fix the problem, maybe a bad connection?
Are these symptoms of a bad starter solenoid? Or something else?

Thank you

[paulgl26]

if alternator is bad it will drain the bateries over night
it happened to me

[Bad Night]

I would also start looking at grounds . Also , I had a battery short out once and it would kill the other battery . First step is to take the batteries and have them individually load tested . If they pass the test then look over the battery wiring for loose or bad connections . If you don't find anything wrong there then get the alternator tested .

[stroking 7.3]

Originally Posted by Km_rogers

Alright I'll start from the beginning. Let me start by saying my husband knows his truck better than he probably knows me Every noise, how much power, I swear he knows somethings wrong before it even happens.

A couple weeks ago it started acting funny when you would try to start it. He'd turn the key, wait for the "wait to start" light to go off and then try and start it. It would make the normal starting noise, however it wouldn't turn over. So he'd lay off the key, and you could hear a small winding noise, a click, and he'd try again and it would start right up.

So this would happen every once in a while. Then this morning it did the same thing, however it just wouldn't start. The battery was drained. So he put a charger on it, let it sit and called me to start it a few hours later. It turned right over like nothing ever happened.

There were no lights left on, factory stereo, no remote start, nothing that could have obviously drained the battery. The batteries were fine till he tried a few too many times to start it.
I know when it wouldn't start before he would mess with the solenoid a little and it would fix the problem, maybe a bad connection?
Are these symptoms of a bad starter solenoid? Or something else?

Thank you

Test the GPR and don't buy batteries till you check them out. I was ready to buy batteries and had the parts guy check them to confirm. They checked good. He told me about the GPR. Take a test light, ground to battery, check both large post. One with large red striped wire stays hot, the other should read hot when some one turns the swich on for you, if not it is bad. The second will only read hot for a short time, during the wait to start cycle. Do the test on a cold engine.

[2000pstrokeblue]

ok not tryin to hijack this thread but i have a similar problem, but i checked the gpr anid its fine, tested for a draw and found the #22 maxi fuse under the hood was the draw and its the junction box battery feed fuse...not sure where to go from there...any ideas?