Cutting off sporatically

[superdave]

My 97 has begun to lose ignition power and cut off. It happened once a couple of weeks ago. Truck dies and all electrical quits. I put it in park, crank it up again, and all is well. It did it again twice this morning. Seems to happen when I take off from a start when I first crank it up. Since it works fine after that, it's hard to fix a problem that has "fixed itself".

Ignition switch maybe?

 

[twomanymontes]

Check your battery connections. Mine had a loose cable and every time I hit a large bump the truck would shut off and all lights went out. Pulled over and the lights came on and it started right away. Drove me nuts till I was under the hood moving stuff and noticed the cable moved. No problems since then,

Hope this helps

 

[sewlow]

Agree! These trucks do weird funky things with poor connections/cables. Stuff that would seem to be totally unrelated to the cure.

 

[superdave]

I wouldn't have thought battery since I wasn't losing all my stereo settings. Well, it's free to check. Electrical gremlins that occur "sometimes" are always a problem. I was going to throw an ignition switch in it, and then I saw the price.

 

[superdave]

Both battery cables were slightly loose. Amazing how often I can overlook the simplest things. It may not have been the culprit, but it's a high probability that it was. I guess I need to add "snug battery bolts" to my oil change stuff.

 

[twomanymontes]

Both battery cables were slightly loose. Amazing how often I can overlook the simplest things. It may not have been the culprit, but it's a high probability that it was. I guess I need to add "snug battery bolts" to my oil change stuff.

Maybe it is the problem, maybe not. But it's still something that had to be done. And mine didn't loose radio stations either. Let us know what happens

 

[superdave]

Maybe it is the problem, maybe not. But it's still something that had to be done. And mine didn't loose radio stations either. Let us know what happens

I'll update, but I'll give it a few days, just to see.

In the past when I've had problems with battery connections, it wouldn't be an occasional thing. Once it didn't have a good connections, it wouldn't do anything and lose all power. This is a bit different, but both cables were definitely a bit loose.

 

[RyanMerrick]

I had the same issue and it was loose battery cables, not a fan of side post batteries...

 

[Ruger_556]

I had the same issue and it was loose battery cables, not a fan of side post batteries...

Pretty easy to switch

 

[superdave]

Headed to work this morning and it lost all electrical for just a second going down the road at 55 mph. Everything died, and then it came back. I'll check my grounds next I guess.