Well here we go. I went out this morning to start my truck up a few minutes early. Put the key in the ignition, turned it forward, dash come on, WTS light came on, I let the glow plugs warm up for 30 seconds or so. Then I turned the key forward, the truck cranked for 1 second then everything went black. Lost power to everything, dash lights went out, door chime doesn't work, no power windows, no door locks, nothing!

So I kinda got mad, walked inside, came back out 2 minutes later, and I had power back again. So I put the key in the ignition and the same exact thing happened again. So I took my brothers truck to work and just came home now to try and figure it out.

I checked all the fuses in the panel under the steering wheel, they are all good.

My battery terminals are all tight, one has a little corrosion on it, so I am going to pull em off and clean then up.

I was thinking maybe it had something to do with the starter shorting the whole truck out? I know that the starter is not the original starter and he bought it online somewhere.

This all happened out of the blue, last night the truck was perfectly fine, drove home the 40 miles from work without a single issue at all.

I am kind of stumped right now, I do not know that much about electrical, just some basic stuff.

Any input would be pretty awesome at this point haha, this was a good way to end the week. Plus its not like I can even go outside and sit in the truck and drink some beers the radio doesn't even work!

Thanks for all the help I am sure will come my way guys and gals.

 

bump to the top for you, never know if anyone else could have the same problem...good to have this stuff figured out.

 

Right now the only thing I can think of is bad Batteries pull them and take them down to you local parts store and have them Load Tested.

 

I would be looking for a bad battery ground to chassie !!!

Smokie

 

Happened to me and It was a bad battery. Changed both....

 

Same thing happened to me. Ck the bolt that connects the harness to your PCM. Its in the center of the adapter on the drivers side firewall below the brake booster. If that bolt is even a hair loose it will cause everything to shut off.

 

I agree with everybody.

 

Well the good news is its back up and running.

I disconnected the batteries, cleaned the heck out of the terminals. Only one ground had a little bit of corrosion, like not a lot at all.

I tightened the bolt on the back of the PCM that seemed fine.

Hooked it back up and it worked fine. Really weird I didn't think a little corrosion on 1 ground wire could cause that.

I am glad its fixed and thanks for all the advice everyone. I am gonna let it sit today and try to start it in a bit and see what happens. Its been sitting for about 15 hours so that will hopefully tell me if it was just the batteries.

Once again thanks for the help guys, I am glad it wasn't anything serious.

Dennis

 

Just a heads up. When you start seeing corrosion, the battery is going bad, and will burden the other battery, and the alternator.

 

Really? I never knew that or ever heard that before.

That's pretty interesting. I got diehards from sears in there, they are only a few years old.

Can anyone explain that? Corrosion = bad battery?

Dennis

 

I'm sorry, I can't agree with that. Corrosion occurs on every battery terminal that isn't prepped correctly - good or bad. You could have an old dead battery with no corrosion more easily than a good one. The electrical current going to/coming from the battery plays a role in the corrosion of the terminals - again, if the terminals are not well-prepped.

I apologize for being contrary - I just wouldn't want somebody to use corrosion as a viable test to replace two expensive batteries.

 

I have seen it several times in 7.3's. You can move the battery and the corrosion moves right with it. Put a new battery in corrosion stops. Corrosion is a precursor to a problem.

 

I still just don't know if that is 100 percent true.

Does anybody put anything on the terminals to prevent it from happening?

 

Absolutely! My local auto parts store sells tiny packets of battery terminal treatment right next to the cash register (I use that because I don't need a jug of it). Go to the shelves and you'll find sprays, padding to go under the clamps, gels, and a probably a few things I haven't seen yet.

 

Just cleaned mine the other day. Looked like the damn terminals were baking a cake. To top it off, they're only a year old..Costco batteries. Hopefully the battery terminal stuff keeps it clean for awhile....(second time cleaning them since purchased)