wheatus

i have not seen any mention of anything like this before so i thought i would relate my experience before this drives someone else crazy.

i bought this truck for $800 bucks drove it around for a couple of months with an awful oil leak and a barely functioning carb. i replaced the carb and kept feeding it oil and we were getting along nicely. i was driving a big truck at the time and was gone a lot and let a friend whose truck died on him drive it. i dont exactly know who is at fault but my sister went to pick up the truck and drive it home but only made it half way, blown head gasket. this was just the excuse i needed to pull the motor and replace basically everything. new gaskets, timing chain, guides, the works. buttoned it all back up and nothing just an irritating buzz from the starter relay oh and a blown 40 amp fuse under hood. new fuse turn it over and pop, blows again. winter came and i let the truck sit being as how i was gone anyway and don't really need it. so the weather has been getting warmer and my brother and i began to try to figure this thing out. another new fuse which blows and the same annoying whine from the relay. get a used relay (free) still nothing, pull the starter and it tests ok. reinstall starter pull steering wheel and begin to chase down every wire in the AM 2 circuit, which is jumpered now because those fuses are expensive. everything tests ok ignition switch is fine really getting irritated. removed, cleaned, and reinstalled electrical connectors all were fine. finally removed the starter again and checked the contacts everything look good, cleaned them up and was getting ready to put it back in. then we decided to hook it up and crank it just to see, it spun really slow. took it back to the parts store where they tested it again and told me it was fine. i got a new starter, installed it now everything is fine.

so the moral of this very long story is, dont trust the parts store

abecedarian

Parts stores don't load test the starters, just test them free spinning. I've had arguments with counter clerks about this as well and, every time, replacing the part they said was good fixed the problem. It's the same with alternators too- they don't put a significant load on them, just check the output voltage.

Anyhow, it sounds like maybe some solenoid windings may have melted together (why, I don't know) causing excess draw or something similar, dropping the system voltage low enough to buzz the relay and blow the fuse.