I hit the horn and my truck revved up and died.I need a new battery and was going to get one when this happened.My gauges went haywire and quit working.I put used battery in it and it started ran about 5 min. and it died again and gauges went down again.I must have a short in the steering column or the horn, it acts like it is pulling the juice out of the battery, not getting a new battery till I fix this any help would be appreciated thank you!!!

 

That sounds to me like it's still low voltage
Did you clean and inspect all battery related connections?
IDK what motor you have but the v8's are prone to cable corrosion at the starter.
Did you check the charging rate?
Are you sure the replacement battery is good?
Good luck
Keep us posted

 

Sounds like your alternator is not working properly.

When you hit your horn, (plus with everything else electrical running - ignition, lights, fuel pump.., PCM, sensors... etc), it seems the horn just depleted the original battery further...

When you put the used battery in... same thing happened... The alternator does not seem to be providing any voltage to the truck.. It's all running from battery.

You need a voltmeter capable of checking voltage when you run the truck and see if it's outputting 14.x volts. Anything lower than 13v - 12v, it will not charge the battery and indicates it's on it's way out.

You can also remove the alternator and have it load tested at one of the part stores. Have them run it a few times with a real load on it ... I've seen bad alternators pass their in house test... and saw good ones fail.

 

some of your symptoms indicate a possible loose battery terminal.

 

Putting new alt. and battery in it thanks for the replies!!!I'll let u know how it goes.