I've had pretty good luck with secondhand vehicles, but lately....well it was a cheap runabout. How cheap it stays...

Got into truck this evening, started fine, but noticed voltmeter jumping, also saw radio light/screen was flickering - I had noticed this the other day when I had the a/c on, turned it off then on again and it was fine.

This time, I shut the engine off. Went to restart....nothing. No lights, no gauges, no starter, absolutely zip.

Checked battery....12.7 volts...closest thing I could find for a load test (disconnected) was a 110v trouble light, battery still read over 12v. Battery's a cheapie but new (by truck vendor) in April. BCAA guy was just a tow truck driver, didn't have any magic tricks. I was spoiled in Australia, the local equivalent of AAA/ CAA there has fully equipped trucks and the operators really know their stuff...

Checked battery connections....checked ground connection...could not find the other end of the +ive to check except where it goes to the solenoid on the fender - is that just for the starter? I think I got +12v on one side, but tow guy didn't seem to get anything but I couldn't see if he was grounded properly. That made me wonder if there was something wrong with the battery clamp...but I need to find the other end of the main +cable and check it out ( I think I need some wheel ramps and a creeper at this point)

Also checked the fuse compartment under the hood, couldn't see any blown ones, and couldn't seem to get any voltage from it either.

I did wonder about the fuel cutoff switch, I can't remember where it is on this truck, but that doesn't kill everything does it?

At least it happened outside brother-in-law's place, and not halfway home...

 

Your + cable goes from your battery to the soliniod on the fender, all of the power wires should be connected there. Then other side of the + cable goes to the starter and only has power when you engage the switch to start. If you have those cheap replacement terminals on your battery those are bad about corroding and should be replaced. Sounds like you have a corrosion problem so be sure to clean or replace the terminals and go from there....Also where the + cable connectsto the soliniod those other small wires on that post have fuseible links on them. They look like small rubber boxes on the wire and you need a test lite to check them. All you do is verify they have power on both sides of the link.

 

Thanks, I will look at that. Will check solenoid more closely. It was smart of Ford to make the solenoid that accessible, and away from water....

Corrosion isn't actually thaaaat bad, might have been at one point cause the original terminals were a bit ucky, I only just cleaned them recently.

Since I didn't have the truck with me to compare for battery clamps/cables, I just bought universal battery clamps and will make sure they have terminal grease etc on them, and that they're nice and snug. I figure I might as well start there anyway, then work my way down the wiring loom for voltage...

 

Decided to have a small tinker with dead truck I had towed home the other night, besides it's sitting at rather an odd angle (we're in a cul-de-sac)

So I'm poking and prodding - notice that there's like 2 volts on one side of the solenoid...so I look elsewhere, and there's two volts on some of the under the hood fuses too.

Take out the engine bay light power plug and test that, suddenly I'm seeing 12 point something volts (cheap meter don't know how accurate it is) - put the plug back in, bulb doesn't light.

Remember that I never checked/looked for an internal fuse panel (ok flame on) but I haven't had this that long....and NOTHING was lit up - there's no fuses in there that look to be ultra-critical except maybe the rear ABS, and the panel meters...but again, I was seeing nothing.

I'm pulling fuses in the cab then I look (must have pulled and replaced the courtesy light fuse which must also cover the under the hood light (incidentally a great idea, more cars should have them, but they need an easy to reach on/off switch) and suddenly the under the hood light is glowing, dimly...I poke around a bit more then it's out, then I try the ignition, nothing but when I look back at some of the gauges, they're up like they are when you switch off....

So then suddenly everything's back....and I don't know what I did, and if it's related. On the back of the cabin fuse panel, I can feel a plastic canister right behind the flasher, about the same size and shape as flasher....is that some vital component?

OK so I'm happy it's working, but unhappy I didn't find a definitive cause. I did wonder if the ignition switch is faulty, the other day I was driving and noticed I had no flashers and no instrument lights, I fiddled with the keys a bit and found they were pulled out slightly, or turned slightly towards the starter position - which makes me wonder. It was fine when I turned the key back a bit, and remember, I had just started the truck, then switched off because the voltmeter was jumping, when it all went dead when I went to switch back on.

I've been able to start the truck several times. The battery seems unipaired, but the voltmeter (I know the ford gauges are unreliable) is reading quite high - the "L" in "Normal" (what's wrong with volts, or is this Ford's concecession that the gauges can't be relied upon to be accurate, so don't put on a value if you can't deliver it) - voltmeter reads 14.5 volts, is that high for charging? It could be that the battery did go a bit flat.

I'm too old (46) to lie directly on the ground, I'm going to have to buy a mechanic's creeper and have a really good look at this thing, trace the + wires through the harness a way. Won't hurt to put the new battery clamps on but I want to eliminate variables first, not add them, although that shouldn't complicate things too much. (In Australia, we used to get these neat battery isolator type clamps, you unscrewed a **** and the battery was disconnected, easy as that, I'll buy one of those if I can find one)

 

Not surprisingly, this mystery problem is back, complete with another tow home... 92 2wd 5.0 v8

Not surprising, since I could find no explanation or cause. Truck ran fine all winter, I didn't drive it a lot, but it always started fine.

I did wonder about the solenoid again, since I saw voltage on both sides of it today - surely one side should be dead when you're not actively cranking the starter?

What's odd though, is the complete lack of electrical power in ANY other circuit - no lights, no nothing. I don't have ramps and most of the loom's hard to reach so I can't see where much of the + ive loom goes....read somewhere poor grounds account for a lot, which I thought sounded reasonable so I used a booster cable to try clamping battery -ive to the engine, also body - you would think that'd do something, so it must be in the + loom.

This time I will replace the battery terminals but I might walk down to the store for better ones than I have, these ones are sort of nasty....but not the cause, since no amount of wiggling them brings it back, but it'd be a good place to start...I'd forgotten about the fusible link thing within the cable that runs to the solenoid - I keep coming back to that, although secondary systems must be fed by that smaller red wire that runs direct from the + battery clamp...

I know the battery is reasonable, well my gut says it is - wife took the truck today cause I was getting the snow tires taken off the other car, she called me and I grabbed what I thought I'd need - I actually own load testing battery tester (basically has big heating elements in it) and I'll double check battery with it tomorrow - but I suspect it's fine, since I connected a portable battery booster to it and still saw no lights or power.

I wonder if it's some sort of huge drain, but the battery doesn't run flat, and there's no smoke or crackling or noise...which leads me back to high resistance/bad connection

A starter solenoid's quite cheap - I don't have a lot of cash to throw at it til payday and I need to drive to work - so am in a bind....thought I'd disconnect the started side of the solenoid and see if power returns to the rest of the circuit....also thought I'd see if I can get a universal battery + cable so I can replace the cable back as far as the solenoid - previous ownler had a battery leak/explode/die badly so there was some sign of acid damage around and the + cable insulation there might even be brittle...

Thought I'd take the split loom apart so I can trace the wires better, and do spot tests to ground til I find where there IS no connection, in theory, that should be where it's at...

Wish it was a bit warmer (I'm a bit of a wuss, but I am just getting over flu) and had a little more room in my garage so I could work on it in there...at least this time towtruck driver was great and was able to deposit truck right on the drive, last guy dumped it rather awkwardly on the cul-de-sac.....

Any thoughts on other things I should check would be appreciated. I know the alternator's yet to be considered, but I'd assume few, if any alternator faults would prevent ALL battery power getting through...?

Still need so much workshop stuff - a creeper, ramps, trouble light etc...

 

You probably don't need any new parts - just remove, clean, & tighten every big wire terminal near the battery, starter relay, & underhood fuse block. Don't forget any of the 4 terminals of the (-) battery wire, and don't move the wires to the wrong terminals. Try to remove all the wires from ONE terminal at a time, put them all back, & then move to another terminal.

If that doesn't fix it, test voltage from each of the battery POSTS to the clamp around that post. Then from the clamp to the next terminal on that same wire, & to any other terminal on that same wire. If you find a large voltage drop along a circuit, there's high resistance in that connection or wire, & that's the problem. Clean & tighten the connection, or replace the wire.

 

Thankfully the weather's pretty good today but forced truck maintenance when you're fighting the flu blows somewhat...

Steve's logical processes started me thinking, I loosened and tightened all the ground straps etc I could find and replaced the -ive clamp with a generic one, it's not very pretty but a sound connection.

I'm wondering if I'm fighting several things at once - I tested the battery and it either came up 'weak' or delivering 400 CCA- tracing wires etc it seems the voltage on the battery drops to nothing when both terminals are done up - suggests a short or a bad connection producing a lot of resistance, right?

So I went across to the power distribution/underhood fuse box, when I disconnected some of the terminals that sit on the battery (I think) side of the solenoid, I could see voltage at some of the fuses, just a little - imperceptible, really. If there is a drain like this going on, it would run the battery flat, wouldn't it? Why has the battery been fine so far? No hot smells or smoke or anything when it's sitting still...I know that a battery without load will still give 12v even if it's had it, it just delivers no current...I will try again with the jump start box (one of those portable batteries) just to be sure, since I wasn't seeing any lights etc coming on, just like last time (then they did, slowly til all came back to 'normal')

So I tried adding connections back to the terminal of the solenoid one at a time, watching the battery voltage. When I added one, which is two wires, off-white or even greenish with a non-shiny sort of insulation (I should add somebody has wired the truck for a trailer, I suppose I could try bypassing it all just in case, they didn't do a very impressive job)- when I added those last wires the voltage fell away...

So I then reconnected them, and went across to the powe db/fuse panel, reasoning that when I pull the fuse on the circuit with the big load, the voltage should reappear (although this may be a red herring, when there's a bad connection say in your lights, all sorts of weird things can happen, your turn signal may not flash but your licence plate light might......)

But...I pull the 50 amp fuse that I think is related to the headlights, the voltage at the db jumps up to 12 - but no other lights etc come on, so it may be a very weak current...

Still, the headlights should not have been drawing anything, no ignition on, so no daytime running lights, checked the headlight switch, and it was off...wondered if there's a relay, had pulled a few and cleaned the blades and put them back in but they're hard to pull out...

Any thoughts? I have to work tomorrow and I guess I'm driving my wife to work, hoping she can catch a ride home, and taking her jeep...sigh.

 

I have heard of batteries losing power simply because of loose connections somewhere in them. It happend to my grandma's car where it would start and work perfect, then suddenly be dead. Then hit it or bump the car and it would work again. Perhaps you could trade batteries with the Jeep and see if it acts any different? Just a thought that could save a headache.. well, more than you have now

Good luck

 

You definitely have a bad connection at the battery, or a REALLY bad battery. Take it out & get it load-tested at a parts store. I think even Wal-Mart will do it free.

If you got one of those cheesy red or black painted terminals that have a strap over the big wire with 2 bolts, you need to remove the paint both where the wire goes against the lead terminal AND where the terminal clamps onto the battery post.

 

Steve, you got it in one - bing, we have a winner.

Stupid pos battery clamp. I'd already replaced the negative one with a cheapie - well, I'd bought a pair because both of the battery clamps were crappy - and hadn't gotten to the pos one, I was about to do it where the truck had broken down on saturday, but the towtruck came a lot sooner than I'd expected, (tow was free though auto club, fortunately) so I then got sidetracked (hey I had the flu) into checking all the ground connections, and the strange phantom voltages I was seeing really threw me - it was either leakage through some devices, (maybe even the diode pack in the alternator?) or just a tiny bit of current was squeaking through the bad pos battery clamp connection - which I did leave out of the loop in the meantime, because no amount of poking or wiggling of the cable at the clamp would restore power, AND there was still power coming out of the heavy cable that runs to the solenoid...

Of course, there are TWO cables from the pos battery clamp, the thinner one drives all those good things like the lights and engine and all the stuff that wasn't working....so I was thrown by the fact that ONE wire out of it was delivering power.

After steve's post, and my own gut feeling, I just went outside, cut the cable off the clamp, touched it to the post, and there it was lights on.

There's not a lot of slack in those cabls, I might buy some better clamps or consider buying a readymade with a universal cable on it, but I don't know if I'll be able to find long enough off-the-shelf cables, those things are LONG and with those loads, I'd reluctant to put an added splice or connector where none currently exist.

Meantime, truck's running fine. I have an isolation clamp in the pos (it's like an extra battery clamp with a **** that screws down, if you loosen it, it cuts the power) and the terminals are all sprayed with the red stuff. It actually looks quite neat and tidy now...