Gremlins! I hate them!

[TubeTruck]

Fried it! Just coincidence I guess but I used a pair of jumper cables to start the LS on the stand. Had to run to the parts store to buy a new starter because the one I had would barely turn the engine over. I jump and and turn the key... nothing. Try a few more times and finally it starts. I leave and come back without turning off the engine. Shut it off and try to turn it back on... nothing. No gauges, dash lights, no power at all. It starts raining so I finish up the LS and try my truck again. It starts but every time I rev it up the gauges "reset". They do their little servo dance. I shut it off and lose all power again. I start digging around and find the wire that goes to the fuse block from the starter came out of the ring terminal. I take it all apart and crimp a new one on and everything works... then my tach dies, my radio won't stop blowing fuses... the next day I drive to Chicago and when I leave... nothing. Try a couple times and it fires up and hasn't done it since. I think I might replace the fuseable link when I do the LS swap since one side of the wiring is soft. Other than that I can't find any problems and my radio keeps blowing fuses. I might have to send it in for warranty service.

Anyone else have any ideas?

 

[SirRobyn0]

Not to state the simplest thing in the world, but are you still rockin' a side terminal battery? If so I'd take those apart and look them over with fine tooth comb, especially where the bolt contacts the terminal, and look at the big wires for any possible corrosion growing into the wires. This seems to be a much bigger issue for side terminal batteries than any other type. Next I'd check the grounds. The fuse blowing for the radio would not be caused by any of this but corrosion at the terminals and bad grounds are very high on the list were it comes to stuff like things resetting, not power no crank one minute then cranks. After that I'd look at the bulk head connector and the electrical part of ignition switch.

 

[TubeTruck]

I am running side post batteries but when I put dual batteries in I made all new cables. There isn't any corrosion on the terminals and the grounds were cleaned up before I installed them and I haven't removed any of the cables since (it's been 6-8 months), but I did check for tightness. The ignition switch and neutral safety switch came to mind also. The truck starts in park but not in neutral so the switches will get replaced at some point.

 

[SirRobyn0]

I am running side post batteries but when I put dual batteries in I made all new cables. There isn't any corrosion on the terminals and the grounds were cleaned up before I installed them and I haven't removed any of the cables since (it's been 6-8 months), but I did check for tightness. The ignition switch and neutral safety switch came to mind also. The truck starts in park but not in neutral so the switches will get replaced at some point.

Somehow I knew you were going to say that. The thing is a neutral switch doesn't explain the other electrical issues. I could see it being the ignition switch. Good luck, I'll let you know if I have any great ideas.

 

[Poppy 87]

For what it's worth, sounds like ignition switch to me. Good luck

 

[Raider L]

Yeah, but what's blowing the radio fuse? Are we still talking about the ignition switch causing just the starting problem or all of it? Why would the ignition switch cause the radio fuse to blow?

Yeah, I had a starting problem that always was the positive battery cable terminal end being "dirty", and occasionally it was the cable ends having corrosion on the wire strands. But I would look at the battery post and terminal end and it was spotless. That's why I used (" ") in saying dirty because it sure didn't look dirty. I would do my usual dance having to take the positive terminal off the battery post, using one of those little battery brush things and ran it down on the post of the battery and then reaming out the terminal end, reinstall and the truck would crank right up. Slight corrosion of the battery cable wire strands can give you a fit. Sometimes you can't even see enough there and it will break connection and make you think it's something else.
But since you said you replaced the cables then it sure wasn't the cable ends.

 

[Raider L]

@TubeTruck,

I'm a former licensed aircraft mechanic working on commercial aircraft, like passenger aircraft. The one thing we hated more than anything were "intermittent" electrical problems. It means every once in a while some errant electrical problem will occur and unless you can duplicate it there is no way to know what it is, or how to make it happen so you can fix it. Unless of course a part fails because of it. After you trace the wiring through half the dang airplane and you still can't find it, and it's a passenger airplane, people are going to fly in that sucker tomorrow and you can't fix the thing in mid air! I know! Gremlin's? And they are laughing their butts off while you chase them around all night!

I've flown with the pilots on check rides, where they are going through their reoccurring training and be sitting there and the "Master warning " light comes on. What do you do when the pilot is in mid take off and the co-pilot reaches over and chops the right engine so the pilot can practice taking off with one engine going out right after take off, and the master warning light comes on indicating a serious problem. What do you do? Click it off and keep flying! It's when a bunch of other lights come on is when you worry.

I'm kidding, but do it like in airplanes, hook up a warning light to everything that keeps the engine going and if something goes wrong a warning light will come on telling you some part has failed or gone out of spec. Or like I've got my truck where you run duplicate gauges on important stuff. I have a bunch of gauges I haven't even put in yet, and I'd like a bunch more.

 

[Ricko1966]

Gremlins aren't so bad it was the matador that I hated. Leave the radio fuse out. Start it run it,etc. The power wire to the radio and? Look at a schematic. Is grounding,it pulls switched power from the ignition,which is possibly freaking things out.