Hey Guy's
I had a weird electrical thing happen today. I went to start the truck after it had been sitting for about 30min since I last ran it, I pop the key in turn the ignition on everything was normal then pow! dome light dims, my CB that was turned off starts clicking on and off, and the alarm on the thing starts half way going of. weird. I had just replaced the batteries last week so I figured maybe I didn't tighten the terminals enough or they got loose or my alternator is bad and I just needed a jump. I was by myself but I luckaly was at the place I work at and had the keys to a cheby truck that I have acess to. I connect it all up to jump and light in the engine bay comes back on and everything, so i thought I was good to go. after letting it sit for about 20 min to charge it still wouldnt start, it would just click like it was trying. I still had my charger/starter in the truck from the old batts being bad, so I figure I can connect that up and let it sit and charge a while and go work. but I was about 200 yards from the building. So I use the cheby to pull my dead truck closer to the building so I can plug in the charger. I turn the truck on - still dead - pop it in neutral and sloooooowly pull the truck to the building - didnt want it to get away from me with no one in it! 10min later im at the building and go to put it in park and the lights for the radio are on. I turn the key and it fires up like nothing happend!!??

Whats the deal??!! I drove it around the parking lot to see if it would die, it ran like normal.

I'm wondering if something with the glow plug relay or something is bad. while I left the truck on to pull it toward the building maybe gave it time for the glowplugs to click off and return power?? what ya think?

I felt like I was in one of those alien movies when they come to get the people and the car goes crazy.

Sorry for the long story.

Thanks!
Eric

 

just went out to see if it would start again and it did with no problem. -could be because its still warm. I'll check it again in the morning.

 

Sounds like a bad battery or a loose connection. New batteries can fail too

Check the ground wire(s) from the batteries. If it does this again use one of your jumper cables on the battery ground to the engine. You need to do this b4 the GPR cycles off (~2 minutes)

 

Great idea, I'll give that a try if it does it again.

I have always had very good luck with Interstates, but you are right, they can be bad when new.

Thanks!

 

Check all your body grounds, engine grounds, and also check starter connections.

Also, check the power cable going to your underhood fuse box, poor connection thier and...................been thier, done that.

Reason why I feel its most likly in the wiring, the moving around of the truck as you towed it may have been enough to make a bad connection contact.

Dont rule out the batteries though, that could still be a possibilty

 

Batteries can have poor internal connections. Using a load tester can help find those bad connections. Most parts stores will load test your batteries for you.