went out to start the truck the other day and it would barely turn over like it lost battery charge. popped the hood and something finally clicked... apparently when the previous owner replaced the left battery ground cable end, he decided to wire the main ground to the actually intended bracket, and the smaller ground (runs into the wiring bundle that appears to go to the GPR and MAYBE the IDM???) was simply wrapped around the screw for the clamp end. it looked a little loose, so i checked it and lo and behold, about 5 inches of the thing got so hot it was smoking. just for grins i took the ground off and tried cranking and it had all the power it usually had, just wouldn't fire. pulled the batteries off and re-routed all the ground connections to the proper place (reconnected the small ground as well) and tried to crank again, and it went back to being drained... tried to jump it with my wife's expedition and it still wouldn't get enough juice. got the batteries on a charger now (not really sure if they were dead or not, but it's acting like they are i.e. lights go dim, dash lights are weak, and very sluggish turn over). any ideas what's causing her not to start?

 

did you chop out the 5" or so of the "smaller" ground lead before reconnecting it?

If the batteries are discharged a good bit, a no-start due to the electronics not working correctly is a definite possibility. Start with the basic factory NO diagnostic chart and work from there.

 

no, i just let it cool off and then checked to make sure it wasn't all burnt up (still looked copper)... maybe a dumb question, but what's "the basic factory NO diagnostic chart"???

 

Sorry - search for the "Hard Start-NO Start diagnostic". many postings at different places. This will get you to a later one:

97-15A 7.3L DI Turbo

The process is common to most of the 7.3 versions, differences in the Go/NoGo thresholds change.

On the wire, I'd suspect it has internal issues. measure it for a voltage drop across the 'bad' section and replace if there is any drop at all (make sure current is flowing thru it or you won't see any drop).

 

Cool, thanks a lot! I've been suspicious of the glow plug system, and I guess it makes sense that it would give me problems now since it's been a cali truck till now. Probably still has the stock GPs... I'll check it out! Thanks again! Reps sent!

 

well, like i said, i went and got a battery charger (which also tests the batteries) and both batteries were pretty dead, so i charged them up and then tried to see what happened. before i did anything, i took my test light and tested that section of wire that was questionable, and light came on. took the multimeter and tested it, and it had .2 ohms, and no voltage drop. hopped in the truck, WTS light came on for about 10 seconds (it was about 65*, so who's to say the glow plug system even had a part in it), turn the key and bam, started right up. drove the truck a couple miles, turned it off, turned it back on, no problem. in the morning it should be colder, so i'll make sure i try it first thing to see what happens. i'll keep you posted.