So a few days ago I went out to start my Bronco to go to work. I turn the key over and nothing, I mean NOTHING. Spokane has been under a cold snap and it had gotten down to 40 the night before - and being that the truck is 23 years old, I figure it doesn't like the cold. Not to worry, My 08 Charger is sitting in front of it, and the battery is mounted in the trunk, so I back her up and do the whole jump procedure. I tried several times and the best I could do was to get it to click and turn over maybe 1 rev. The last shot, it clicked, turned over, stopped turning, and everything went black. (Omitted part where I had to call a friend from work to come help me push my truck out of the way so I could get the Charger out of the garage). I have had problems with the fuse links at the starter solenoid before so that's where I started.
So far:
1. All fuse links appear to be good
2. There is a short in the circuit connected to fuse #8 (interior lights, door switches, etc.) - with the fuse in, the voltage at the solenoid drops to 8.5v, fuse out gives me a full 12.5 there (battery reads 12.5 at the terminals)
3. The short is masking the bigger issue. There is still no voltage going to the dashboard, lights, or starter, switched or continuous.
4. Sometimes I can get the door chime to ding when the key is in the ignition. I can't duplicate it reliably though.
5. The ignition switch appears to be ok (not loose, no little contact pieces fallen out), I did not ohm out each contact though.
6. I was getting frustrated yesterday so I may not have been thinking clearly, but from looking at the wire diagrams and where I see power, it appears that all the mains are hot, its the sub systems that don't appear to be working - which unfortunately are most of the truck.

Any help? Ask questions, I've done some other stuff but the 6 bullets above are the big ones.

I'm OK at trouble shooting but this has gotten a lot deeper than I expected it would. I'm not too far from sending it to an electric shop but my ego has already been damaged over the past few weeks from another incident and admitting defeat here would probably drive me to reading self help books and watching reruns of Oprah.

 

Battery cables and terminals. This is a real common issue on these trucks.

 

10-4, the battery ground cable would be my bet.

 

Even if the connections appear to be solid, disconnect at BOTH ends and take a resistance reading of the cables themselves. They can and do corrodes from the inside out leaving them to appear fine but rendering them useless. Anything more than 0.1 ohm resistance in something that big, should be replaced anyway.

 

Glad I asked! The post clamp on the positive side is a replacement. The cable had actually corroded under the clamp/contact point (not the battery terminal). I took it off the cable, took the Dremel to the clamp and sanded the cable down to bare copper and she fired right up.

Thanks for the replies!

 

Glad to hear you got it running again. Always happy to help!