By 'dancing guages and a dead battery' do you mean that after a weekend of sitting, the first attempt to start it resulted in poor or no crank and that the guages also danced around?

If so, my guess is either a poor battery, or some sort of parasitic drain. With the engine and ignition off, unhook the positive wire from the battery and hook up an ammeter. I'm not exactly sure what a good reading is but it may be in the neighborhood of 25mA or less. A reading of 100mA (1/10 Amp) is probably not good. No battery will hold up to parasitic drains like that

If you suspect a bad battery, one idea is to unhook the positive wire from your truck for a weekend if you can. If the battery is still charged after that time it may suggest that the battery is still good. A fully charged good battery can sit unhooked for months and still have enough to start a vehicle. If It is dead after 2 or 3 days, your battery is shot. This can be a better test than load/voltage tests.

Another way to test a battery without lots of equipment/tools is to swap batteries with another vehicle. If the other vehicle starts having battery issues, you've likely found the problem. If your truck still has problems, you can rest assured it's not a battery problem.


good luck -jim