RV won't start - single click, then long beeeeeep sound

[beachbound]

Hi everyone.

I have an old RV. 1989 Gulfstream Sunstream Hi Rise. 454 P30 chassis.
I recently bought her and have had nothing but problems. Recently, I drove to have new brakes put on. When I returned home, I parked and turned the rig off. I immediately tried to start it back up to move where I was parked, but it wouldn't start. I checked my battery connections and discovered that one of my cables had come loose and the post melted. I bought an adapter and put it on the other free positive post. Still no start. What I DID notice, though, is that one of the relays had been attached to the negative post on the starter battery. I have no idea how this rig EVER even started). I replaced all cables and attached them appropriately. Now, the rig still won't start. I get a single click and then a constant beep sound, which seems to be coming from the starter.

I have headlights and all the lights in the house/coach work.

Voltmeter shows power to the relay. Batteries are new and fully charged. I've tapped on the starter with a hammer, but that didn't help. I have 3 batteries that run in parallel. I even tried to bypass the starter battery and connect to one of the house batteries, but still no start.

Any suggestions? Oh, I'm a girl and am not very mechanically inclined, so please be patient with me.

[jfran304]

Sounds like your starter solenoid may have gone bad. It sits on top of your starter. You can try to cross the terminals with a screw driver to see if the starter will crank.

https://www.google.com/search?q=1989...Q9d3_mp_0NM%3D

Jon

[superlucky]

Is there any chance that the relay you mentioned is not the starter relay, but a "house disconnect" relay.
I ask because most GM starters have the starter solenoid mounted on the starter itself. I would check for voltage at the starter. I would also have someone turn the key to the "start" position and check for voltage coming out of one of the smaller wires going to the starter solenoid.

If the RV started and ran before your re-wire, you might now have two problems instead of one.

Perhaps you could post some pictures to help identify the relay in question.

I would also think that a fused link or a circuit has been tripped due to the melted battery post.

Good luck
Bill

[Heber Eason]

It sounds like you have defective cranking batteries. When your battery burned, it most likely shorted the internal plates in your batteries and you are not getting amperage to your starter.I would recommend that you remove and a load placed on them by a battery shop. Good luck.

[ga traveler]

At this period in time Chevy was having hot start problems with the 454. Chevy added a solenoid to help with the hot start problem. It is on the right top of the engine. I believe it is on the alternator support brace. Sounds like this could be bad.

[dpinvidic]

Glad you got your headlights working....what was the issue with those??

I assume you don't mean the "Beep" is coming from the starter....only the click.

Since you know where the starter is, take a look to see if it looks like one piece or two pieces. By two pieces, I mean is there a small cylinder device mounted on the side of the larger cylinder.

The smaller cylinder is the relay, but some chassis will have a separate relay.
You will need help with this test, but have someone turn the key to start and measure the voltage on the big lug which connects to the starter.


If you have a solid 12 volts at the starter when you turn the key to "start", the the starter is bad. Tapping the starter helps sometimes....but not always.

Good luck.

Dan

[dpinvidic]

ALSO...what are the details on the relay connection?
If only one post was connected to the neg. terminal, then when that relay was activated, you would have had a direct short. The would definitely damage something. The relay contacts are probably shot at a minimum.

So we need to be sure that everything that was damaged by this bad conection has been replaced.

Dan