As if i didnt have enough problems with this truck..

[mr_smith]

I have been dealing with a huge, yet to be figured out problem with my truck. Might be a bad/cracked head gasket or head, might still be the oil cooler, don't know yet..

Anyways, I was driving it a short distance today and it just lost all power, won't crank no headlights radio nothing.

Where do I start looking?

 

[franklin2]

All the power for the truck is derived from a few small wires on the large post of the starter relay(solenoid) mounted on the pass side inner fender under the hood. There are some fusible links over there also.

 

[mr_smith]

How do I go about determining what is bad?

 

[franklin2]

Get a testlight and start poking the wires to see if they have power. You have some large yellow ones that run into the cab to feed the fuse box and the ignition switch. You headlights are out there also. You can poke before and after the fusible links to see if they are bad.

If you are using a multi-meter, make sure you turn something on in the truck, the domelight would be good enough. That's why I like a testlight, it presents enough load to the circuit to give a good reading, and avoid false readings a multi-meter can give you. If you load the circuit down, the meter will give you a good reading also though.

 

[warhog]

Did you check all the fuses? That would have been my first check. If you find a blown fuse you can trace the wiring for that circuit.

 

[chris142]

A bad fuse link will be a stretchy wire for lack of better terms. Dirty battery cables will stop ya too.

 

[jwalterus]

my starting point from what you're saying would be the positive battery cable connection

 

[mr_smith]

Thank you guys very much, I am going to get to the truck now and start looking.

 

[OLDBULL8]

Go here for electrical diagram, scroll down to figure 5, thats your truck.
http://www.autozone.com/autozone/re...epairGuideContent.jsp?pageId=0996b43f8038ecd6

or print this out. If you have power at the fuel shut off solenoid on the IP, with the key on, then try to start by useing a wrench/screw driver to jumper across the large terminals on the start solenoid mounted on the pass side fender, if it runs, drive it back to your shop.

 

[mr_smith]

Found the culprit. It was 2 wires with fusable links that go into a connector that goes to the solenoid.

Thank you to those that contributed.

Now... back to the head gasket or whatever it is issue