2003 Adventurer 35U Will not turn over.

[Deny]

I'm betting a loose 12 Volt Connection

At Battery, or solenoid

Don't buy starter or battery , until after you clean & tighten cables. If you have a mickey mouse cable end that attaches by clamps to the cable....start there....only use cables with factory ends

[tsut]

I once had a similar experience with my F 53 chassis. The shift lever looked like it was in park, but the sensor thought it wasn’t though. A simple wiggle of the shifter towards park, and things work as they should. Worth a try.

Good luck!

[Matterbery]

If you take a multimeter and hook it to the postive post of the starter and then try to start the engine and you are getting a click and you can feel it in the starter the meter should show a 1 to 1.5 voltage drop. Any more than that then you do not have enough voltage in the batteries or a bad connection. If you have no voltage drop then the starter selenoid is not making connect and sending voltage to the starter motor either by bad connection in the solenoid or the bendix is not fully engaged.

[NeilV]

Originally Posted by Digger72x

OK, so now go to the connection where the battery cable attached to the starter (that would be the solenoid) and remove and clean the attachments. Be sure to disconnect the battery positive cable at the battery before you start as it is usually tight quarters in that area and potential short to ground while working with a live cable is possible. I had the same trouble on our last trip. The connection was loose and arching resulted in loss of connection

Be mindful that you disconnect the Negative cable from the battery first on a Negative Ground Vehicle. This is Standard Procedure for a Negative Ground Vehicle because when you disconnect the Positive cable first you may strike the metal framework shorting out the positive terminal to ground creating sparks which can cause an explosion due to off gassing hydrogen from the batteries or can super heat the wrench handle burning yourself.

In an emergency you can use a carbonated beverage if baking soda is not readily available to rinse battery acid off yourself if the battery explodes on you however best practice is to turn everything off that runs on the battery and disconnect the ground first so you are less likely to create a spark and have a battery explode or get burned by turning your wrench into a heating element. Always wear eye protection when working with wet cell batteries to protect your eyes from the Electrolyte(Sulfuric Acid).

[jbrattain]

Sounds very much like the battery connections need cleaning. Disconnect the cables from the starting battery, clean the cable ends and the battery terminals. Probably should do all the batteries just as a preventive step anyway.

[mike4re308]

I use Trik-L-Start. It takes the charge from you house batteries and keeps you starting battery charged. I've used it on all the motorhomes I owned. It works great! ;-)

[Don G]

The problem will probably happen again so it would be best if you can be ready to test it when the time comes. Wire connections should be checked and eliminated first. All you need is a multimeter which is handy to have on board anyway. There are 2 wires that make the starter work. The main power feed which is a large wire and the solenoid power wire which is the small wire. The large wire should have power to it all the time. The small wire gets power from the ignition switch when you turn the key. If you measure 12v when you turn the key on both wires, you need a starter. This must be checked only while you hold the key in the crank position. If you loose 12v on the large wire you have a battery or connection problem somewhere. If you don't get 12v to the small wire you could have a wire connection issue, bad ignition switch, park/neutral safety switch or relay if equipped. You mentioned that you heard a clicking sound which more than likely means the starter had 12v on the small wire and if you have 12 on the large wire you need a starter. Practice the test now while it is working so that you are ready when it happens. If it were me I would change the starter now just to avoid getting stuck on the road. (16 years old)

[Bo Walker]

I'm glad Gailannr got the problem solved.
Now I hope I can get some help. I cranked the Winnebago P30 Chevy with the 454 engine and moved it backwards about 10 feet to take care of some ground work. About 3 days later I wanted to move it back in place. I turned the ignition switch and heard the click in the black box near the firewall outside. I checked the battery and even had a battery shop check it. I removed the starter and had an electrical shop take it apart, grease the bearings and put a new solenoid onto it. I installed the starter but it will not even attempt to start. In checking the voltage at the batteries I discovered the red (hot) cable going from the battery connection directly to the starter was grounded. I removed all wires from the starter or solenoid rather and reinstalled them to no avail.
There are 2 solenoids in a box near the firewall near the driver's side corner. I don't know which is which. But I found a large red wire terminal grounded. From there I discovered a block about 4 1/2 inches long mounted on the firewall not far from this box. There are 5 terminals on this block. They have red wires and black wires. All tested grounded. I removed one by one and discovered one is grounded. It is 2 wires with one connecting end. It goes into the motor home underneath the dash. I haven't traced it from there.
If you think you can give any helpful information, I sure would be obliged.

[Jim Schmidt]

One thing I would to is to verify that the battery was being charged. Plug the coach in and with the engine off, verify that the battery voltage is at least 13.5 volts. If this situation exists, the battery was being charged. This same procedure is done to verify if an alternator on a running engine is charging the battery. Other root causes could be dirty/poorly connected battery terminals, bad battery, and bad starter/battery ground.

[Kvw613]

Starter solenoid. Inexpensive. Bypassable with a jumper wire. We replaced ours a few months ago. Same symptoms intermittent at first, then solid Available at any auto parts store. Ours was about $20.
Do not replace the battery. Do not replace the starter.

[htbotdvr]

Originally Posted by gailannr

No luck with the tapping and starter.

if you have a gm engine I think its the solenoid on the starter if you can see starter its on top short out the two posts on solenoid and it should spin if so replace starter

[NormD]

Bo Walker, if I understand your information, you say that the large cable from the battery positive terminal to the starter is grounded, or zero voltage. This means that the battery has zero volts and there would be no relay click sound. Please retest the battery voltage. If it is around 12.5 volts or more, then check the large cable at the starter, which should be the same voltage. Then, as mentioned in previous posts, check that at least 11 volts appears on both the large and small wires at the starter solenoid when the ignition key is turned. Since the starter has been reworked, it should crank. If the voltage is under 11 volts, suspect and clean the wire terminals. If no voltage appears at the small solenoid wire, try starting in NEUTRAL instead of PARK. If none of this fixes the problem and still no voltage on the small solenoid wire, there may be a failure of the ignition switch or other wiring in the ignition circuit.

[Kvw613]

Originally Posted by htbotdvr

if you have a gm engine I think its the solenoid on the starter if you can see starter its on top short out the two posts on solenoid and it should spin if so replace starter

If the starter spins, I believe the problem is the solenoid, not the starter.

[Okierambler]

Originally Posted by gailannr

What will that do? Or what is that supposed to do? Thanks Sorry this is the wife asking.

Sometimes the starter solenoid sticks and tapping on it usually will help it ingage.

[Don G]

Bo Walker, not sure what year your rig is but some of those show a 10amp crank fuse which feeds power through the transmission park/neutral switch and then to the starter relay which then supplies 12v to the starter solenoid. (small wire to starter)

[Don G]

Originally Posted by Kvw613

If the starter spins, I believe the problem is the solenoid, not the starter.

Originally Posted by htbotdvr

if you have a gm engine I think its the solenoid on the starter if you can see starter its on top short out the two posts on solenoid and it should spin if so replace starter

Actually if the starter spins when you short the large battery cable to the small solenoid wire the starter is functioning properly. what is lacking is 12v to the solenoid wire when you turn the key to the crank position. You are providing that by shorting the terminals together.

[Bo Walker]

I should have explained. The large red wire was not connected at the battery when I found it is grounded. It was completely loose and only connected to the starter. That's why I kept checking further up the line. As I originally stated, one of the wires (actually two with one connecting end) located on the 4 1/2 inch block mounted on the firewall, is grounded. I disconnected it and tried the ignition and got no sound from any solenoid or starter. All batteries are fully charged.
I would like to know what the wires on the 4 1/2 inch block come from.
Also, What does the two solenoids mounted in the black box underneath the front driver's side control? Both have two large lugs. The top one has two small terminals and a 5 amp fuse. The lower one has one small terminal.
Thank you for your help.

[DLH]

Make sure battery positive and negative cables are clean and making good connection at both end. Poor ground connections are as bad as poor positive connection.

[Don G]

Good to check connections. One thing to know is the large cable to the starter usually feeds power to other circuits from the terminal at the starter. This will cause you to see the wire is grounded when not connected to a power source. All the other devices on the circuit are connected to ground through the load. You really need to reconnect the wires and test for power on the small wire when turning the key to the crank position. As mentioned before also try starting in neutral. This will eliminate the transmission switch as a potential problem.

[Dave9]

Did you try jumper cables from another Battery????

Is the park brake on

Is it in neutral ?

Sorry if i sound stupid but at times when we have problems we forget the A.B.C. stuff !!

Just a thought.

Dave