i ran into an interesting issue today, and just want to see if anyone else has seen this.

i went out to start the truck for the first time in a month or two. of course, i killed the battery trying to get it fired up. no big deal, i hardly ever use it, so this happens a lot.

there was some corrosion, so i decided to pull the battery out and clean everything up.

here's where it got interesting-

i reattached the positive battery cable. when i went to reattach the negative cable, i got a pretty good shower of sparks. i leaned into the cab to make sure the key wasn't in the ignition- it wasn't.

attempted to put the cable on again- more sparks, and the starter tried to kick over. what the??

i removed the positive cable, and put my voltmeter across the main studs on the starter relay- and sure enough...its OPEN. with no power at all.

it had been working fine five minutes before- its never given me trouble. its about 2 years old, a $25 NAPA relay, not some cheap part.

i would never have expected it to fail at all...but much less to fail *open*.
anyone else seen this?

 

I had one go out this weekend, too. It was only a few months old. The quality of replacement parts really sucks these days.