Totally dead in the parking lot

[Doc]

I went out to fire up the truck to go home from work. When I first turned the key everything seemed fine, wiat to start light came on, radio worked, all the dash lights, etc. When I turned the key to fire it up, everything went completely dead. I mean completely dead. I can't get any power to anything. I even tried bumping the starter directly from the solenoid and got nothing.

I checked all the fuses under the dash and under the hood and they're all fine. I don't see any loose connections under the dash and I don't smell anything that would indicate an electrical part went bad.

I was having some trouble with the column shifter, but I tightened up the bolts to the cable bracket and everything worked fine.

Suggestions, ideas, any help would be great. I don't want to have to call a tow truck.

 

[argve]

How are the battery connections? Do you have access to a volt meter? If so I would check for 12v at the solenoid on the fender well to see if it's getting anything.

 

[Doc]

No voltmeter, no tools, nothing. Just me and the truck.

I'm thinking the batteries are totally shot. I did have a guy come by with cables and we hooked them up to one of my batteries. I did get a wee bit of power, but not enough to start the truck. The minute the cables come of it's back to no lights, no nothing.

I can't believe both batteries went so bad so fast. At least I'm hoping it's just the batteries.

Thinking about it, I did hear what sounded like a relay clicking under the hood this morning. It wasn't the glow plug relay because that makes the volt gauge bounce and I didn't see that. What about one of the relays on the fuse box under the hood. Could one of them be bad causing an open circuit thuis draining my power?

 

[Doc]

Got some tools and a votmeter. Both batteries show 12.7 volts. With a jumper battery and a car hooked to the both batteries I get good power. When the key is turned on the power seems to drop dramatically until the glow plug controller starts to click then the power seems to go back up but the truck still won't crank over.

 

[pafixitman]

Ya got volts but you need to have them load tested for amps. I'm betting they are bad.

 

[argve]

sounds like bad batteries or bad connections. Place one lead of the voltmeter on the positive post and the other lead on the positive battery cable - this way you are checking the voltage drop across the connection if you see some voltage then you have a bad connection, do this to all four connections. You would not believe how many times I have had starting problems over the years that I see a volt or more between the connection and sure enough when I pull the cable off the post I see corrosion... just something to check... Might not be it but it's worth a check.

 

[Doc]

Well, here's the final chapter of today's saga.

A nice fella came by with a volt meter, tools, and just about everything else. Tested the connections, they were fine. When a load was put on one of the batteries, it went completely dead. The other battery, when given a load, dropped over half its voltage. Took both batteries back to Sears. One showed it had a short in it (didn't know batteries could get a short) and the other went dead when given a load. The Sears guy said when one battery went out it must have killed the other one.

Thanks for all the quick help. It certainlu kept me from having to chase a bunch of connections, switches, or relays.