My 1977 f150 looses all electrical power for no apparent reason. Sometimes it will not turn over the solonoid just clicks and the battery cables get hot if you keep tryind to start it. Sometime when it is acting up you have no power at all, not even the dome light will come on. Usually it starts and runs fine. When it is running and starts to act up it will make the engine die.

 

when mine did that it was the wires from the alternator, they looked good at first till i spliced into them and realized they were old and brittle, i scratched my head over that for some time, when i rewired a few key wires i havent had any problems since, its probably the larger main power wire to the alt....

 

Might be as simple as a poor battery terminal connection.When you say the wire gets hot you are hitting the nail on the head.Heat in wiring is caused by resistance.To much juice being pulled through a wire or connection is what is causing it to heat up.I would say it is an electrical connection that comes and goes.When you drive the truck viberations from the road and the engine itself can cause some connections to come loose and lose proper contact and sometime the vibrations will also correct the poor connection.This can cause some pretty tricky problems in locating the connection in question but in most cases it is a very simple fix.Your truck is most likely experiencing problems with either the connections at the battery or it could also be the starter wire that run's up to the solenoid.It may be loose or have poor contact at the starter.Replace it completely along with the ground wire to the block and also clean up your battery terminals if they look questionable.Make sure to secure the wires so they don't move around to much and if you don't have your battery secured in place it can move around and cause poor connections.Once you make these repairs you should have your problem solved.Yes it is possible it could be something more like a weak starter but I doubt it.Good luck!!

 

I got my truck back from the shop today. They said that the battery cable rubbed on the exhaust manifold and was shorting out. Easy fix but it still cost me $140. Oh well thats the price you pay when you have to limp in to the closest shop. Thanks for the advice guys you were right about the starter wire.

 

$140??????? Im in the wrong business....a 4' starter wire costs like $15, they charged you $125 for 10 minutes worth of work.........ouch....well at least your mobile again.