I thought everything was good after fixing the battery cable clamps. WRONG.

The power goes absolutely dead after opening the hood. Usually it comes back after I close the hood. Not yesterday. I opened and closed the hood when I got home to check my coolant level and sure enough the power was dead. I didn't have time to even begin to diagnose because we had to meet a couple of friends. I forgot my cell phone in the truck and ran to get it after a couple of hours. Sure enough, power's back in the truck.

I noticed an odd thing on the truck while driving it the other day. If I pushed in the clutch and the RPMs dropped rapidly, they'd go below idle and the radio would go out and turn back on.

Also, when the truck is off and it has power... When I get into the truck, if I bump the steering wheel w/o the key in the ignition, it will buzz momentarily. Only when I put pressure on it, it buzzes.

The previous owner had all of this CB & speaker system wired under the hood. He kept that equipment and everything's exposed under there. I found two black wires half-assed twisted together and not capped or taped off. The Mico Lock does not appear to have power. The switch for my fog lights doesn't appear to have power.

After the truck warms up at idle, it lights will dim until I hit the accelerator to get going. Supposedly the alternator is brand new. Lots of the wiring under the hood looks messy.

I'm not very good with electrical, but it sounds like it's time to get good. I have a multi meter and 12V test light.

Where should I start? Any ideas what's going on? It almost sounds like something's tweaked with the ignition and/or grounding/shorting out. I don't know why the power would come back on when sitting.

 

Sounds like a loose ground or a series of them.

 

It sounds like you have more than one issue, and it may be fun to get sorted out.
Was there ever a burgular alarm ever hooked up.
When you push on the clutch are you loosing your lights too.
As far as opening and closing the hood check and clean the wires on the starter relay connections. also check the famous gray connector on the fender well with the yellow wires.
What are you talking about when you mentioned the mico lock has no power.
If it was me I would start looking at every place that anything has been altered, it has been my experience that most electrical problems are manmade after leaving the factory
By people adding accessories, on a case like yours I usually start by tracing all non factory wires and removing them and repairing the factory wiring with quality splices and heatshrink.

 

I'm not sure what yellow wire deal you're talking about, but I'll look for it.

No burglar alarm to my knowledge.

Is the starter relay on the side of the fender near the GPR?

No issues with the clutch and lights. At night I can push in the clutch and you can see the lights dim a bit when the RPMs drop fast and rebound to idle. Actually I can see the lights flicker dim and bright when driving at a constant speed sometimes.

I'm concerned with the steering wheel and buzzing when pressure is applied to the wheel and the truck is off. Would it make sense that that's ignition? Supposedly the tumbler was replaced because he lost the keys.

The mico lock has a switch to activate it. When the switch is ON, a red light is supposed to be on. There's no red light and the mico lock brake doesn't work. It's that hydraulic parking brake solenoid deal put into some of these trucks.

 

Ok yea that is the relay I am talking about.
The micro lok is after market it didn't come on it.Just turning the switch on will not set the micro lock you have to depress the brake pedal then turn it on if it is working.
The buzzing when pressure applied to wheel sounds like it will just about be something inside of the steering colunm.

 

I'll give those relays a good cleaning then.

When I hit the brake and try to set the mico lock per its instructions, it won't turn on. It's non-functioning.

 

This is the connector I am talking about. One of Dave S picture.

This connector will corrode and cause a loss of power.

 

Ahhh ok. I think mine has a bunch of electrical tape wrapped around that connector. I could be thinking about a different one though. It's snowing out there right now, so electrical fun will be put off for another day.

 

8 times out of 10 that is the engine to body ground... they often come loose at the firewall.

 

In Utah they won't even accept the mico lock as an emergency brake anymore. I've never seen one with a light but you threw the lever to lock and stepped on the brake pedal a time or two and it would lock up the brakes tight.

They said fluid could leak off and release the brakes at anytime so no pass safety inspection with only a mico lock around 20 yrs ago.

 

They are correct, fluid pressure can bleed off in time. For instance we had a fleet of dodge 3500's with micro locks and if there wasn't adequate pressure the horn would blow constant. One guy found out the hard way at 3 AM on morning.
An emergency/parking brake system is a seperate braking system that doesn't rely on the primary braking system. This is why the micro does NOT qualify for inspection and why factory parking brake systems are mechanical, not hydraulic.
Micro locks are intended for such operations as winching, where you're required to lock the wheels and strain the drivetrain and/or parking pawl of the auto tranny.

 

My truck has an 8k lb Warn winch on the front of it, so maybe that's why the mico lock is there. Still, it doesn't work and neither does my parking brake. I believe the ratchet at the parking brake pedal was either broken off or removed. I need to get under there and get it taken care of. Not having a parking brake sucks.

 

It looks like we're going to have rain all week. I'm going to have to bring the truck out to my folks shop to work on it.

Now it's not starting as well as it did after I cleaned the battery terminals, clamps, did away with the damaged ground cable section at the terminal clamp and replaced that terminal clamp. I removed my under-hood insulation kit and made sure it didn't touch anything on the motor. It's cranking longer now. It's not starting and stalling like air intrusion. I'm not sure if the starting issue has anything to do with the 1/2 quart of ATF I put in each fuel tank. It's probably electrical gremlins. I'm going to check my glow plugs.

 

While atf does lubricate the fuel and acts like injector cleaner, it does nothing to help with gelling and nothing for water. If your temps are low you need to add an anti gel additive.

 

It's been in the mid to upper thirties at night and as high as the lower fifties during the days here recently.