Hey guys, gotta run, so this has got to be short, but for some reason, when I went out to leave for work this morning, the truck clicked once, then wouldn't do anything. No lights, no clicking, no turning, no nothing. It's acting like the battery is totally dead, but it's testing at a full 13V (12.99). It did this yesterday, too, but started right up after sitting for a minute or so. Today, nothing. I got home from work, and it's still dead. Details:

1991 Bronco EB
5.0 ltr 302
3 month old Optima Yellowtop
MSD6 Offroad Ignition
Delta 3 stage performance chip
( I think that's all that's applicable)

Any ideas? Again, it's acting like the battery isn't even there, but it's testing fine. All grounds look okay (cursory glance), and nothing glaringly obvious. HELP!!!!

You guys have always been good to me, so I'm hoping someone's experienced this one. THANKS!!!!

 

A battery might put out enough voltage, but it's the amperage that cranks the motor. Although, if it's not clicking, you might want to replace the starter relay. How do the lights look? If there's not enough current to crank, the lights should look pretty dim.

 

Sounds like a bad connection or corrosion build up somewhere. If it clicked once the inrush current may have unseated a loose connection.

A thought I just had... There is a red wire running to the secondary relay down at the starter it has a female spade connector on it. The odd thing is, there is no sheath over it (or there wasn't on my 92). So its exposed to everything that splashes up at it under the truck. I finally got tired of having to crawl under the truck and yank that connector off, clean it and the male spade term., then reconnect it just to start the truck. So, I cut the bare metal female off the wire one day and replaced it with one that had a full plastic jacket over it......the problem never returned. Now, with this problem I still had lights and such so your problem may be at the battery connection(s) themselves.

If none of that seems to be the problem, have the battery checked, if you lost one cell in the battery, you can still have full voltage readings but as Andym said, your amperage will be sucked down into the bad cell in the battery and never get to the rest of the electrical system.

 

i agree with greystreak92.
i have seen batteries going out with a bad cell act like ya said, get tested,ok. may be a warning sign. clean connections and try diff batt.

 

Thanks for the advice guys, it's echoing my own suspicions. I'm 98% sure it's not a bad relay, since that's only a few months old, too... so I'm really leaning towards a bad cell in the bat. GRRR!!

I didn't have time to mess with it tonight, so I'll have to use the wife's car again tomorrow, and mess with it after work.

Thanks again for the help! As usual, you guys ROCK!!

 

sounds just as grey said about current inrush breaking a connection . take off batt cables and clean the connections real well. a battery with one dead cell would probably still supply enough current to crank although it would be slow.what happens if you put jumper cables on and try to jump it? had a loose ground bolt on a tempo once and acted the same as you describe. my first guess is dirty batt cables .

 

Okay, quick update. Went out the next day and it started fine. Had some errands to run, so I decided to give it a shot. She worked fine but ended up stranding me at the local furniture mart. Got a ride home, and came back later to check it out (after store closed) Had battery tested and it's fine, (thank God), got to checking connections, and for the most part, they look okay. Fixed a few, but nothing that should have been a big issue. (Didn't really help anyway) Started poking around with the multimeter, and didn't see anything that stood out. Figured I'd might as well try a few things hit or miss. Since starting at the top made the most sense, I replaced the positive battery cable (didn't look great) and checked all connections on the neg. cable. While I was at the parts store, I went ahead and picked up a new starter relay (it was only a few bucks) since that was the next step in line. Got those both installed and she fired up great. I'm hoping that's all the problem was, but I'm not convinced seeing as how she left me stranded once already. I'll take 'er easy for a few days and see how she behaves. Wish me luck!!