HELP! my truck wont start

[silverz51]

I went in my truck today and when I tried to start it, nothing happens. No lights, no radio, nothing at all. I opened the hood and looked at the battery and it's fine. I played with the connection to my alarm and it made a spark and everything.

When I got back in the truck and turned the ignition on, I had lights, fan, radio, everything! But when I tried to start it, everything turned off. No lights, no fan, no radio, not even the door locks.

I went under the hood again and checked the cables, took them off and back on, etc. I went back in the truck and again, when I turned the ignition "on", I had plenty of current going everywhere and when I tried the starter, everything turned off again! not any power anywhere except may be the alarm which is wired directly to the battery....

What could be wrong? Is there some sort of breaker that's getting tripped? why would the starter circuit suddenly fail completely?

 

[silverz51]

Update:

I went out and tried jump starting from my Corvette by connecting the jumper cables from the battery cable terminals of the truck to the Corvette.. Nothing!
I finally thought that I would connect the negative from the Corvette to the actual frame of the truck: Voila! it started.

The trouble seems to be in the cable terminals where they attach to the battery posts. I opened them up, pulled off the clamp bolts, filed the tabs to allow a tighter fit and cleaned up the posts and the inside of the terminals. That seems to have taken care of the problem.

Strange symptoms, but it all boiled down to poor battery connections!

 

[blacksnapon]

accessories only take a few amps to operate. The starter can take up to 200 amps. You had enough to operate accessories but not the starter. Not unusual at all.

 

[silverz51]

accessories only take a few amps to operate. The starter can take up to 200 amps. You had enough to operate accessories but not the starter. Not unusual at all.

I've seen it before like that, but never seen the battery go apparently completely dead, or as in this case, the connection going completely open....

I will say that after I cleaned and replaced the battery connectors, I noticed that the alternator was charging a little higher than it normally does for a little while. The battery might have been not charging as well as it should either...