Its driving me nuts!
Thread Starter
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Posting Guru
Joined: May 2004
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From: Prince George, B.C.
Its driving me nuts!
Just looking for a shot in the dark from anyone here, F-350, whole electrical system died today. I can actually turn the key on, no current draw but if I hook a body ground to the +/constant side of the glow controller and it will make the guages jump but nothing is working at all. If you want full details on what happened to it, I posted the whole story in the '87-'96 forum. F-350 Wiring dead or somthing, I can't remember the exact title. I'm going insane on this one, I have to keep replacing stuff in this electrical system, especially battery cables.
Post Fiend
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 5,638
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From: Manitoba
Put some truck info in a signature please........ go to quick links at the top and edit a signature. What precluded this problem ie normal driving or parked ?????? any work done on the truck.
OK I just printed out the complaint on the other forum....... I would start by checkin all the ground points to the engine and frame. Check the starter wires too. Your possibly going to have a few fusible links blown and fuses. Don't be doing that with the GP controller. Check all the GPs for condition with a test light.
OK I just printed out the complaint on the other forum....... I would start by checkin all the ground points to the engine and frame. Check the starter wires too. Your possibly going to have a few fusible links blown and fuses. Don't be doing that with the GP controller. Check all the GPs for condition with a test light.
Last edited by PLC7.3; Jul 17, 2005 at 10:29 AM.
Post Fiend
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 21,285
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From: Nutter Fort, WV
You need to be using a test light, not grounding positive wires to the body of the truck.
My guess is you have several body grounds burnt away. The main battery grounds go to the engine block.
This can be tested by putting the ground clip on the test light on a negative battery terminal. Turn the headlights on a touch the probe to the body. If it glows, the body is not grounded.
If it does not glow, start checking downstream from the battery and see how far the current is flowing. On my 86 the main cab power comes off the front terminal of the starter solenoid on the passenger side inner fender. There is a wire from the positive battery terminal directly to that terminal on the starter solenoid. Several other power wires like the glow plug controller also come off that solenoid terminal
Also with that big of a short the main positive battery cable may be burnt off inside the passenger side battery terminal. A 1500 to 2000 amp short can toast a lot of stuff.
My guess is you have several body grounds burnt away. The main battery grounds go to the engine block.
This can be tested by putting the ground clip on the test light on a negative battery terminal. Turn the headlights on a touch the probe to the body. If it glows, the body is not grounded.
If it does not glow, start checking downstream from the battery and see how far the current is flowing. On my 86 the main cab power comes off the front terminal of the starter solenoid on the passenger side inner fender. There is a wire from the positive battery terminal directly to that terminal on the starter solenoid. Several other power wires like the glow plug controller also come off that solenoid terminal
Also with that big of a short the main positive battery cable may be burnt off inside the passenger side battery terminal. A 1500 to 2000 amp short can toast a lot of stuff.
Thread Starter
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Posting Guru
Joined: May 2004
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From: Prince George, B.C.
I started checking, and the batteries have good ground and positive cable connections, I have only found 3 melted body grounds, the fuses are all fine. My next step is to find and check the fuseible links. It turns over fine, all the GPs are fine and the truck will start if I hook the cut off sol. right to the battery. So I am just heading out in the next couple minutes to start putting new body grounds on and see what happens. Also, all this happened during normal driving. The positive battery cable managed to move just enough to find a sharp edge on the rad support and it seems to have cut through the insulation pretty quick, thats what caused the short in the first place. Plus it fried my new alternator and regulator.
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Posting Guru
Joined: May 2004
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From: Prince George, B.C.
Its fixed, I just replaced the body grounds (not the problem, they only had some insulation melted off them) The problem was 2 wires that came from the solenoid that powered the cab, they were broken at a previous splice.
