Had a strange electrical issue the other night. I was out in town. Sitting in side had the dome light on and radio for about a minute. Went to turn the truck over and instantly everything went black. No power. Popped hood, everything looked fine. Moved around the positive battery cable a little bit and then the interior light came back on... Went to start it and again.. instant darkness. fiddled once more and started no problem.

Now that its up and running my stereo is dead. Its a cheap aftermarket stereo however I am boggled as to what the issue is. The battery came and all connections are tight. The harness is new. Fuses look great. Pulled fuse on head unit and let sit a few in, put fuse back in and stereo is fine now.

SO... I something is up. Could starter solenoid be bad? And when I say the truck lost power.. it wasnt just while the key was turned to start.. It killed power all together until i fiddled with wires under hood

Any ideas?

 

How old are the battery cables? How are the ground to cab and chassis and battery to chassis? Bad grounds and old cables can do some weird stuff.

 

Hey Jeremy. What Brian said. It's 90% a battery cable problem.
There is no physical way that a starter relay/solenoid can do that. As long as the positive battery cable and the power wire to the vehicle are in contact with each other, as they are on the single stud of the starter relay, then the relay has no effect on delivering power to the rest of the truck. It ONLY effects the starter in this situation.

So, the list of things that can kill power to the whole truck is short:

1. Positive battery cable.
2. Negative battery cable.
3. Fusible link in the Black main power wire to the cabin. The link is out at the starter relay where the wire is attached.

There are multiple things that effect each of those of course, such as loose or corroded connections, OR the internal connection within the wires themselves. In my case, ever time this has happened (just once to me personally, but many times to others I know) it has always been inside the battery cable and it took a new one to fix it.

Good luck. Hope it's that simple and cheap.
But don't put it off. If you suspect, or are even in doubt as to the cables condition, change them. Falls into the "cheap insurance" category.

Paul