So the day before yesterday I went out to the garage.. decided to fire up my truck. Something I do a lot. Reached in, turned the key... one click and everything was dead...no light, no nothing. My first thought was a dirty or loose cable. Went and checked... all was good, but I still unhooked the cables and cleaned them for good measure. Went back in the truck, had power again... lights turned on, radio turned on... went to start... same thing... one click and it's like someone turned of the main breaker to the house.... everything was dead again. I'll unhook the battery and reconnect, and I'll get power to everything again, but as soon as I try to crank it, everything goes dead again. Replaced the battery cable... no fix. Checked the grounds, no luck. Any ideas? Dead cell suddenly? Bad solenoid? Thanks, JC62
Battery bad, short in starter or start circuit. Try a different battery that would be my first suspect. Or take the battery and get it checked. You'll have to tell the idiot at the parts counter to check the amperage output. It can show voltage and even show good and not have the amperage output necessary. His checking device should be able to load and tell you
Just a thought ...... ( been THERE !! ) IF it has a FIREWALL plug for the wiring snap it apart and SPRAY ALL THE CONNECTIONS with an electrical contact cleaner ....
Thanks beaner. I'll take it in for a test. I already inspected the starter circuit and it seemed "Ok".
If you have a meter, measure across the battery terminals while cranking. If you get 8 volts or less, it is a flat battery. Now you have to figure out how the battery got flat. Stick the battery on a charger overnight. If it kicks the engine over OK, get it running, and measure the battery voltage again, while the engine is running. If it is around 14 volts, your alternator/generator is OK, So it's back to a bad battery (won't hold it's charge). If the battery has open cells, check your cell's Specific Gravity with a Hydrometer, this will also show up a dead or flat battery.
I tested it with a voltmeter, not while kicking it over, but just like that... it reads 12.6v. Headlights shine bright... radio plays normal. When I go to start it, it kills everything. Completely dead until I disconnect and reconnect the battery.
@31Vicky with a hemi had a vehicle to repair that acted like that. He was instructed to install a new ignition switch and that would fix the problem. Nope, bad battery.
Have you tried rolling the engine over by hand? The starter may be hung up on the flywheel. Another possibility is a hydro-locked cylinder full of water or fuel.
A couple of summers back we had a hot one and I lost 3 batteries. I even lost one in a vehicle that got driven everyday. Heat is hard on 'em.
Haven't tried that yet. I'm sure the engine is fine... the truck's been driven a lot lately, running dam good too. I'll give it a shot though.. you never know.
How old is the battery and how often is the truck used? I find that cars that are used often have less issues than cars that are used now and then. How is the positive cable to solenoid connection? Something like you describe is possibly a dead short of some sort, maybe the battery itself. I go with the others, toss in another battery and see what happens.
Some H.A.M.Ber once wrote "Batteries die in July, they just don't fall over till December" and that's about right. Sometimes they fall over in July though. If you know for a fact the cables and starter are clean and tight you can save yourself a trip and do your own load test, more or less. Disable the ignition and measure the voltage across the battery posts while cranking for ten or fifteen seconds. 9.6 volts is the accepted minimum voltage, a little less in cold weather. A healthy battery will hold a lot higher than that. It's common for a defective battery to choke on the current demands of starting, though still have enough juice to light up the dash or run the radio. The unloaded or open circuit voltage doesn't tell a whole lot, though 10.5 volts usually indicates a shorted cell. source: http://jgdarden.com/batteryfaq/carfaq4.htm
I think battery also, over the years I’ve seen bad batteries do a number of odd things. Had a Sportster one time had a number of odd things electrical going on, but it would start with no problem. Kept having problems, finally one day it wouldn’t start. Replaced the battery, all the problems disappeared! Never suspected the battery, as it would turn the starter. Just another day in the life of a mechanic...... Drove a car to the show one night, came out car wouldn’t start and couldn’t jump it. Battery had shorted out internally and wouldn’t allow a jump. Had one on a Firetruck short out internally got super hot, started stinking like rotten eggs. We just got back and let it do it’s thing, waited about an hour and replaced it. Batteries can drive a man crazy! Bones
Is there a 10 gauge wire coming off pos batt cable that goes across core support? If so it should connect to a junction at the horn relay. Disconnect batt and clean and tighten the wires on the relay. I assume its the c10 in your avatar? Seen this happen many times on these trucks. Hope this helps Lumpy.
Got her fired up. Not sure exactly what did it. I unplugged the main fire wall plug and cleaned the contacts with cleaner.... cleaned the wire where it hooks up to the horn relay and checked all the grounds. Dropped the batt back in and she started right up. Thanks all for the advice! JC62
Good to see you found the problem. As proven time and time again there isn't one answer that covers everything. Testing rules out doubt. Move on else where.
A lot of the retail stuff in a can has been completely defanged, it will blow dust away on modern computer gear maybe but that's about it. Vintage, "collectable" corrosion can be tough stuff! 50/50 acetone and ATF should do the trick too.
Dont use acetone on plastic connectors or you may end up with a sticky mess. Contact cleaner is the stuff. Dries without leaving a residue.
Right, but what they are selling these days often won't even faze the heavy types of corrosion products that result over many years. In any case we're using it on the connectors, not the plastic.
The spray actually worked pretty good. I gave it a couple of doses. Left the connectors shiny and clean.... on both ends.
ATF actually works pretty good, it has metallic "soap" or somesuch. Old school corrosion, I haven't found the "environmentally friendly" non residue stuff to be particularly effective. Kerosene is traditional. Those firewall block connectors, multi-pin receptacles will corrode up till they fail altogether. The cork sniffers like De-Oxit, but it's all the same if you drill down in the safety data sheets.
The Jalopy Journal
