Electrical help. No power when key is turned.

[Dodonne2]

Working on a 1989 7.3 IDI 4 door crew cab. 3 days ago I turned the key and had rapid clicking of the glow plug controller but was able to get the truck to still start for a few days. When it would start the clicking would continue and pulse all the gauges and then stop. Assuming this was the glow plug controller turning on. Now when I turn the key I have no power even the dome light turns off when I turn the key.

Here is what I've done.

Disconnected all glow plug controller wires.
Clean and regrounded both right and left engine block battery grounds.
Put new ground wire from frame to passenger side engine block mount.
Put new ground wire from driver side rear block to firewall connection.
Put in new starter solenoid.
Put in new starter.

One caveat to all of this. The dash frame where the fuse box is attached to is broken. An entire piece has cracked off and is no longer attached to the inner door mount. I ran a 16 gauge wire from one of the fuse box bolts to the negative battery cable terminal. I was thinking maybe the broken frame is creating a dash ground issue. The 16 gauge wire didn't seem to help. Is it not thick enough? Is this broken dash metal frame the issue?
I have had weird intermittent lighting issues and dash issues with the truck for years.


I need some help here any ideas would be greatly appreciated. What about the ignition switch?

 

[Dodonne2]

Also what is this? Nevermind wiper relay

 

[Dodonne2]

Here is my green temp ground wire going to negative battery terminal. The broken metal pieces is to the left of the picture that then connects to the door frame

 

[Nero]

Have you checked your battery voltage? Sounds like low batteries.

 

[IDIBRONCO]

Have you checked the ignition switch on the lower part of the steering column under the dash? Sometimes you can have issues there. How does the key switch work Does it seem to work fine or is it kind of loose acting? Does this truck have a tilt column? Sometimes you will need to adjust that ignition switch on the lower part of the column.

 

[Dodonne2]

Now there is no dome light and no power at all.

Battery voltage is 12.5.

Voltage reading on the starter solenoid post is only 12.2. why would this be?

I have wiggled the ignition switch on top of steering column. I will try to replace this tomorrow as it seems like this the last possible weak spot.

 

[Dodonne2]

No tilt on steering wheel

 

[Nero]

If battery voltage is good, do you have voltage at any of the fuses under your dash? Key off or key on?

If no voltage at fuse panel, then there's probably an issue with a fusible link at the start relay.

 

[Dodonne2]

Which wire color should ignition fusible link be?

 

[Rdnck84_03]

Not sure on a color but if I remember correctly there should be 2 of them coming off the hot side of the starter relay to power everything. I will look at mine when I get to the truck in about an hour.

James

 

[Nero]

This should help

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[Rdnck84_03]

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These are out of the Chilton book.

James

 

[Dodonne2]

I replaced the ignition switch and still nothing. I have no power at all to the cab now, 12.5 at the batteries still. One of the yellow fusible links wires splitting out of the major 6 gauge yellow wire attached to the starter solenoid was fried so I replaced it.

**When I hook up my driver side battery the passenger side positive battery cable is hot to the touch. Why? When I disconnect the main positive 6 guage battery wire on the starter solenoid it gets cold again. Starter solenoid isn't grounded?? I have a wire Attached from starter soleniod directly to the battery neg to ensure grounding.

 

[Dodonne2]

How does the fuse panel ground? A ground wire running to the panel is the ground circuit, or it is grounded by screwing into the dash frame? These four wires all came from the large yellow wire connecting to the starter solenoid. All he yellow ones are carrying exact voltage as batteries but the black and orange wire is missing a ground, it is drawing power, .25V, when it is not connected to the solenoid which means it is not grounded right? When I connect the orange and black to the starter solenoid it lowers the voltage at the starter solenoid to 12.4 volts. This wire runs to the fuse panel and is fuse location #8, dome and cargo light. I still think fuse panel is missing ground but need help

 

[Nero]

There's no ground for the fuse panel. It just supplies power to devices. The devices have their own grounds, to put it in layman terms.