truck won't start, electrical troubleshooting

michaelh712 · Post by **michaelh712** » Wed May 23, 2007 3:29 am

Help please. I was doing some electrical work and must have grounded something out or made an error. Truck was running, and now it won't start.
Batteries rate at 12.4 volts each and 24.8 at the outlet. Cut off switch appears to be working. I get extremely dim dash lights and the audible click of the carb solenoids when I turn the key and hit the starter button, but no starter. Seems to be insufficient juice to the starter. I pulled the bypass relay and it crumbled in my hand; corroded and ancient. I replaced the relay with a 24v light relay, but still no starter.

What next; it was running great before I "fixed" it. I hate it whan that happens.
Thanks

thanks

Jim LaGuardia · Post by **Jim LaGuardia** » Wed May 23, 2007 3:55 am

There are a few things to start, manually push down the contact in the ground switch with a screwdriver with the key on as these switches tend to fail, you should get good contact this way. if that does not work pull the splash panel and expose the wires at the groung cut off. I have found a couple of bad grounding straps melted off at the switch terminals. also check the red wire at the molex connector and the feed wires from the starter terminal to the Ignition switch(they can break).
Happy hunting
P.S. always start where you've been first

krick3tt · Post by **krick3tt** » Wed May 23, 2007 8:39 am

FWIW...check the wire fron the starter solenoid to the radio supressor. Mine was hanging on by one strand and that is not enough to get the juice flowing.

Cheers,
Morris

michaelh712 · Post by **michaelh712** » Wed May 23, 2007 11:27 am

Still won't start, same symptoms.

The SDP site has a writeup on replacing the bypass relay. Since mine was shot, could I have damaged my regulator/rectifier, and could this be contributing to my problem?

Jim LaGuardia · Post by **Jim LaGuardia** » Wed May 23, 2007 5:13 pm

If it was a short, there would be smoke and heat. I would start with the battery connections(all of themlook for an open or corrosion), then bypass the ground switch with a jumper cable from the Negative batt terminal directly to the body or engine block and see if that gets any results.

michaelh712 · Post by **michaelh712** » Thu May 24, 2007 9:44 pm

On the road again and thank all for their help, especially Jim. It turned out to be a small (but significant enough) ground problem and the battery cutoff switch. I'd advise all to read the sdp write up on the main relay, as mine looked fine from the outside, but was totally trashed on the inside.

This forum is a valuable asset for those of us who are not lucky enough to live close to a Jim, Dennis... so I make a point to contribute some cash each time I learn something I could not on my own. I hope that others do the same.

cheers, and thank you!

Foz · Post by **Foz** » Fri May 25, 2007 5:23 am

I'm a $20 a year man myself... Jim's advice alone is worth a case of good beer per annum IMO.

YMMV

Erik712m · Post by **Erik712m** » Fri May 25, 2007 9:45 pm

I'm a $20 a year man myself... Jim's advice alone is worth a case of good beer per annum IMO.
At that price I would fill very lucky You would not feed any of dennises or jim's kids for day. And you are still not giving them a dime.I work all day long on just advise and you will never see me on a forum related to business if I were you I would give that money to Dennis or Jim.

Just my two cents.