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Truck won't turn over!


zeitgeist57

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This windy, rainy, blustery morning, I go out to start my quite reliable '86 Chevy pickup. I turn the key to "on" and everything goes on as normal (lights, radio, wipers that I had on from last night), but when I turn it again to start it the starter cranks for a split second and then everything dies.

 

I disconnect the battery, wait a few seconds, and put the (-) cable back on the battery. Sure enough, all the lights come back on on the dash (I turned the lights, radio, wipers off) but when I go to start it again same thing happens; everything electrical goes dead.

 

Now, I know this is AutoTech 101, but I wanted to be sure. Is it the regulator on the alternator, or the starter motor? Thanks! smile.gif

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Did the lights dim when you went to start it? If so, the battery is low. Could be bad battery, could be bad alternator.

 

If not, it's probably the starter. Hit it with a hammer*, and try again.

 

*If a hammer won't fit, a crow bar will work too.

 

Question - is it a manual tranny, or auto? If a manual, you could just roll start it.

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It'll be a bad battery before alternator at this point. On initial start up, all of the electrical charge is drawn from the battery. Try to jump it, if it takes the jump right away, I would then look to see if maybe there was a small light inadvertantly left on overnight that might have drained the charge. If it does the same thing with the cables attached, try whacking the starter, sometimes that's enough to get her rolling again. If that does it, go pick up a new one because you might not be in the comfort of your driveway the next time it happens.
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oops, missed the "and then everything dies" bit.

 

Does it start off jumper cables? If it starts then dies, then alternator *probably*. If it stays running, then either your battery is shot, or not putting out enough juice to run the starter. Disconnect the battery and take it to your friendly local auto parts store to have it checked.

 

If it doesn't start off jumper cables, it's the starter. Whack it a few times while cranking. If still nothing, you can either have it rebuilt (and upgraded) or buy a new one. Electrical parts, I have to suggest getting either a NAPA part or OEM.

 

The only other possibility I can think of is bad wiring. Any wires that don't look to be in that great of shape (anything original) could (should?) be replaced with new wires. For battery cables and ground, I suggest 4 guage. I remember Hoblick having what appeared to be a miss in one of his mustangs. Turned out his ground cable from the battery to the frame was burned in half.

 

This should end up being a somewhat simple fix if you check everything that Ron and I have mentioned, I just thought up some other stuff and added some more details that I missed in my first post.

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OK, basic things here. My understanding is that you get in, lights come on, headlights work blah blah blah.

You hit the key and the truck acts like you pulled the battery cable, everything is DEAD!!!

Turn key off, back on and nothing.

 

Two things can cause this, a broken connection INSIDE the battery, and a back battery cable/connection at battery/starter.

 

Here's my guess as to what happened, Positive cable connection is bad. You pulled the other cable, bumped the bad cable in the process, recreating a connection, but not a good one. You reconnected the other cable, everything worked again and as soon as you hit the key it drew more current than the bad connection would allow to flow, and the connection failed again.

 

Easy fix, take a can of coke, not pepsi, COKE! pull both cables, pour coke on thhe ends, scrub it off, do the same with the battery terminals.

 

Reassemble everything and you should be golden.

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Desperado (for all of the shit that everyone gives him here) is the closest.

 

FIXED! The culprit? Bad battery cable SCREWS!!! :eek: $2.54 worth of new side-terminal connections w/screws at NAPA, cut off old stock terminals on trucks battery cables, clamped on new terminals, and bolted up to battery and truck started right up.

 

In the process, I managed to strip ANOTHER screw (one of the new ones), so I'll pick up new screws at Advance. These are short, soft metal bolts, so they strip easily if you dont seat them properly on the side terminal battery.

 

Des, props to you for being the closest graemlins/thumb.gif

 

EDIT: THANKS TO EVERYONE! smile.gif The stock screws were terribly stripped and corroded, probably after that really windy, rainy night we had on Tuesday.

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