1989 F150 302 questions
 

Couple quick questions, #1 pretty sure my battery is shot, because when I try to start it nothing happens except a clicking coming from the starter selonoid i believe. Took to autozone and they said the battery didnt "fail their test" And that they would charge it....came back later to them forgetting to plug in the charger and had to wait again....came back another hour later and they said it was fully charged. Got it home and popped it in, I turn the key and all of my power came on but was very very dim and weak looking, wasnt enough to turn the starter over fully. No more clicking from selonoid but the starter made like a very weak half attempt to turn over and then couldn't do it.

Tried jumping battery, could get it to consistently try and turn over once and then still not enough power.

I did use a jump box directly on the positive and negative cables and it started right up with no issues.

So is the general consensus that the battery is shot?

Also my tailgate is sticking on the right side and not wanting to open when the handle is engaged all the way? Any advice on that as well? Thanks everyone!

Battery bad, or just cables? If they are not fully clean/shiny it will not tranfer enough current to start. Could be corroded INSIDE the terminal ends which you can't see, but will make them fail.

Try some WD40 or such on the latch part of tailgate. Might just be sticky.

Probably just a bad battery - how old is it?

If you jumped it "properly" with the negative jumper cable to a ground point on your truck - you're bypassing your battery ground connection.

So I'd still make sure you've got a good ground connection to the battery before going to buy a new one.

Battery fixed the problem. Thanks guys