I've been working on my son's truck a bit - diagnosing the power steering leak, fixing the ignition cylinder / key, and various miscellaneous things.

I sprayed the engine compartment out with low pressure water to be able to spot the P/S leak better - had 27 years of gunk collected in there.

Once I sprayed it out and let it dry for a day in 100+ degree Texas sunshine while on the truck ramps, it started up fine & I even drove it around to test the newly re-installed steering wheel. Aside from the wheel being a bit cockeyed, everything worked.

Got it back in the driveway (no ramps this time) and maybe an hour later it didn't want to start. Plenty of juice for headlights & signals worked, but no cranking at all. Figured something had gotten wet again when putting the truck back to level so I dried out further, including using a leaf blower in the compartment to get the areas I couldn't see but might be vulnerable to spray.

Still no joy several days later. Now I'm thinking the battery is going. Used the emergency battery starter from my car, which got the multimeter up to 12.52v from roughly 12.3v. No love.

I pulled the truck battery and it is staying at 12.26v per my cheapo multimeter on my bench.

It's an Autocraft 65-0 650 CCA 12v battery apparently from Advanced Auto manufactured 10/14. So this thing is not even 2 years old at this point from previous owner, but their warranty is just 1 year so there's nothing I can do on that front anyway.

So it's either desulfate it to get some life from it or go buy a new one. I've used the Epsom Salt tactic before so I'll try that first.

Anyone have experience with these batteries?

 

Does the battery sit for long periods without use, without recharge? That's what causes a battery to sulfate. Hot weather accelerates this process like most chemical reactions. Unless a battery is kept charged it will slowly self discharge. Modern trucks with anti-theft devices, stereo presets and other gee-gaws place serious current demands on batteries making this problem acute. Check for parasitic or "phantom" discharge in your rig. This is important.

All battery charging btw, is a de-sulfation process, but if they sit for a long enough time period at a low state of charge, the sulfation becomes irreversible in any practical sense, the battery capacity is permanently reduced. Charge thoroughly and load test. If it won't accept, and hold a charge, its done and should be replaced regardless of age. Usually a battery that lasts a year will last several more, though not always.

Its not worth mucking around with defective batteries to my way of thinking. Batteries are nothing to fvck with for one thing, the amount of potential energy is huge and they can also cause permanent damage to alternators, voltage regulators, and who knows what else. The battery is the heart of the electrical system and must be serviceable.

 

Battery has not sat for long periods for me, but yes the battery has done so with previous owner. I'm sure that's why there was a new-ish battery in there when I got the truck. The short time I had the emergency jump starter battery on it likely wasn't enough to change the charge long term at all.

I swapped the ignition battery from my RV which also uses a 65 and the truck still didn't start. So it's not the battery alone despite the issue it has. Clearly the starter or starter motor are involved. My guess is one or the other are still wet.

I took the solar panel, trickle charger & charge controller off the RV. I'll charge the battery up and see what happens. That'll give me time to take a hair dryer to the engine and see if I can dry it out to work with the known-good battery on there.

 

And now I confirmed the starter DOES have power. I used a screwdriver to span the pos/neg posts and it has strong spark and momentarily tries to start the motor. I was too chicken to keep it on there long enough to start the truck - I hate dealing with electrical because I don't know it well. The starter is relatively new - the mounting plate is still shiny.

That said, turning the key I get very minor clicking only. No crank but the accessories can turn on, plenty of juice for headlights, etc. Check engine light comes on, the battery light is on, etc. I think the rear wheel anti-lock light was the other dash light that I noticed. The known-good M65 ignition battery that has been on the solar charger earlier today but sat in the RV that way for months registers 13.26v right now installed in the truck.

Could this mean I have a blown fuse for the ignition somewhere in the cabin? Or is it still just likely that something somewhere is wet? I used a hair dryer on the starter, the outside of the distributor and the various electrical connectors.

I think I just need to let this thing sit for a bit and dry out more but as I said I don't know electrical well.

 

If the headlights are bright and the battery is truly charged - then this points to a bad starter, or loose, corroded cables, neglected grounds etc.

 

My guess is the starter solenoid on the passenger side fender area is toast.

 

Most everything under the hood except for the alt. and dizzy are pretty water tight more or less. Your solenoid might be done for but I would check the grounds and such like Ted mentioned. Do the simple stuff first before throwing more $ at it. Have the parts store check the starter out. You could check the solenoid with your multimeter and a helper to turn the key.

 

The starter solenoid must be the culprit. Getting help from my son to turn the ignition, I spanned the starter posts with a screwdriver long enough to start the truck. Everything seems to run fine, so I turned it back off after running for a few minutes. Sure enough, trying just the keys doesn't do anything so I believe that confirms the starter solenoid is the problem. I've got one set aside at the local auto parts store so hopefully when it gets a little cooler outside I can swap that out.

 

OK, finished installing the ignition starter solenoid, and no joy. I still get bupkis from cranking the ignition cylinder. Does that mean I have a short somewhere? Spanning the prior solenoid with a screwdriver started the truck, which means the starter motor works. So I am guessing something somewhere is loose or laid bare & shorting.

I did learn the positive terminal clamp was loose. The whole clamp slid right off the main positive cable so I reinserted it and tightened down the retaining bolts on it. I found & fixed that before I completed connecting the battery so that's not the cause of the problem.

 

Remove the small wire from the Relay/Solenoid, Attach a Test light to it, turn the key to start does it light up the test light ... No probably not!

That means either the wire is broke, disconnected or the ignition switch has failed ... The Switch, not the key Lock assembly (barrel).

-Enjoy
fh : )_~

 

@Festus Hagen
Do you mean the center top post on the solenoid & has the rubber boot on it? There are other little wires but I'm guessing that's the one you mean.

Also, the ignition switch is what the ignition actuator rod moves correct? That is known to be good - at least it was when I just installed the cylinder about a week or so ago.

 

Measure for voltage drop during cranking. Look up the procedure if not familiar. A field expedient is to watch the headlights during cranking. Do they stay bright, or dim out as the key is turned to start?

Sounds like bad cables and/or neglected ground points. Older trucks have corrosion, restored rigs will often have thick coats of paint that interferes with current transfer. Usually if cables are more than 20 years old it is adviseable to replace them. The corrosion won't necessarily be visible.

 

I may have found the problem.

The green wire that runs off the to the alternator has an issue.

frayed wires

About an inch to the right from my hand the cable is open and appears to have a big piece of plastic sheared in it. It's hard plastic not like cable sheathing. This is in the upper alternator cable area - not the one farther left on the side of the alternator.

The green cable itself is bending 180 degrees in a very small space. I'd be willing to bet that separated.

To compare, here's the old solenoid with charring from when I spanned the posts to start it.
starter solenoid 2
See how that bottom right wire bends back on itself?

And the new one.
new starter solenoid

 

You may want to check out the ignition switch for proper alignment. It can be just a little too far down the column to allow the engine not to start.


Use the test light to watch what the starter(red wire with plug) does when trying to start, if no light, then check the ignition switch, if that is good, then check the neutral safety switch.

 

I checked out that "frayed" wire more - the plastic that was shattered inside it was some sort of mounting bracket - perhaps originally from the back of the alternator. The interior of the cabling was not penetrated.

The ignition switch itself was known to be good recently. When I bought the truck the prior owner had been using a screwdriver to manually advance the ignition switch to start the truck. He was unaware the ignition cylinder for the truck was wedged way down deep in the front seat. He hadn't ever had a key for the truck - it was in the cylinder I found when cleaning out the truck after we bought it.

That said, it IS possible I didn't tighten the ignition switch mounting nuts enough to keep it from moving instead of staying put & having the switch engage/disengage. That would have the same effect as what was described re: misbehaving switch.