Hello gentlemen,

Once again I'm having that same electrical problem as last week, except this time its a little different.

Last week, I went to go and turn the key...power came on, stereo was working, the dash lights were working, but when I tried to start it, nothing. I was helped by everyone on here by me starting it on the solenoid instead, which ended up working out perfectly.

This time, it was slightly different. I put the key in, and for a split second all the power came on in the dash and when I turned the key...nothing, not even a tick. I waited for a couple minutes and tried again, except this time the lights on the inside were flickering, and I was playing with the ignition a bit and tried to see if it was that. Turned out to be nothing. I have power locks in my truck, I tried those and they worked.

I went outside and tried to boost it off of the selenoid again, and nothing, but a couple of sparks were coming off...obviously indicating that there's power there. I went underneath and smacked the starter a few times hoping that something would happen, WRONG, nothing happened! At this point, I was pretty pissed off and just sat inside for a few minutes thinking what else to do...but I couldn't think of anything else. I went and detached the booster cables I was using to jump the solenoid and some dude came over and asked me if I needed a boost...and I said, well I don't think I do, but we can try. That proved to be useless and a waste of time as well.

So to conclude the evening and 45 minutes spent trying to get this ***** started, there was complete power loss inside the truck...pl's wouldn't work and I decided to call it quits and call my woman to come get my ***.

Anyways, obviously its an electrical problem of some sort. All my main lines were good, my battery cables are brand new, batteries are brand new, and I didnt find anything uncanny about it.

Share your knowledge gentlemen, elaborate what the problem could be!

Thanks,

Agem

 

Seems like I've read that there is a large connector where the wiring harness goes through the firewall, and that it can get corroded and messed up. That's the first thing that comes to my mind, but hang in there. Others who know these trucks a lot better than me will be along to throw their 2 cents worth into the hat here shortly....

 

Well it was just really weird, the first few times I turned the key, I could hear the gp relay ticking away, and after a few times it just stopped working. However, I forgot to mention that It did make a few clicks when I tried to start it the first couple of times, and eventually squat all happened. How the hell could the harness be working and then all of a sudden stop? I use my truck all day pretty much every day? It just doesnt make sense man...

 

If the connector is getting water in it and is corroded it makes perfect sense.

Give it a few minutes and lets see what some of the gurus suggest.

 

Alrighty...can we somehow flag down Dave S? And how the heck do you flag a topic anyways?

 

You can send him a PM and an email with a link to this thread, asking for his help....

 

I know your batteries are new but one of them could be bad. I had a bat go bad on me and did pretty much what you are saying. It wouldn't cranked even I tried to jump it. I unhooked the batteries one at a time and found it.

Maybe......

 

Hmm....I'll keep that in mind, thanks bud.

 

Out of curiousity, did you make sure your battery cables are all good and tight. If the problem is intermittent, and was working and then not, I would check first for loose connections. They may look like they may be in contact but not enough to carry the load. I recently experienced this when I went to reconnect my batteries and it wouldn't crank, I did have juice in the cab though. Went and tightened the terminal blocks and it fired right up. Just trying to cover the obvious stuff before the big hitters chime in.

As Catfish said, new batteries could be broken internally and may not hold a charge, do you have a volt meter to check. I found that trying to jump through a bad battery does not work very well especially with the CCA these trucks need.

 

Ya they were all pretty tight, but I'm going to make sure that they aren't already crapped out.

 

Sounds like you may have a bad battery and or your cables that you got may be bad. Can you test the battery or bring it back to the place you got it for an exchange? Bad cables could be caused by a bad connection/clamp somewhere, again, it may look attached but...

 

I'll try that tomorrow morning, its too dark out to try anything like that right now. And plus I'm on the other side of town....not really gonna work out that well.

 

Well what would explain the flickering then? I dont get it...it just doesnt make sense?!?!?

 

I had pretty similar trouble. Turned out my battery cables were badly corroded. If you find corrosion, strip back the insulation until it is all exposed. I scrubbed and soaked my cables in a pail with baking soda solution until they were cleaned up good (took a couple of hours). Then wrapped the exposed parts of the cables with the rubbery electrical insulation tape you can find at Home Depot. Also check the clamps and posts and clean them really well.

 

My cables are brand new man...and I have that red stuff that you put on the terminals to prevent oxidization.