Headlig,ht Harness cause no start?

[Chris.G.Jr.]

Headlight***

Ok before anyone thinks I am putting down mean greens hd headlight harness with 4 hi I CLEARLY AM NOT

Anyways, so i finally installed the harness with 4 hi a week and a half ago maybe 2 weeks, anyways all was good until today.

I got in the truck to go grab some food and turned the key and it clicked then lost all power like the battery wasnt even hooked up, (wasnt clicking or anything when id try to crank it)

I have a capacitor for my subs and i let the truck sit there and took my sisters car, came back and looked at it the capacitor is directly connected to the battery and it was reading 0.0 so i opened the hood and disconnected the battery (left the capacitor and stereo system hooked up since its hooked on top post). So i unhooked the side posts and thats where i have the power wires for the hd harness connected and i took them off and reconnected the battery and walked back to the driver door and looked at my capacitor and she was reading 12-13 so the battery wasnt dead, cranked it and she fired up......

I checked the two fuses on the power wires for the harness and both are good. I'm 99% confident i installed it correctly according to the directions. I'm going to pull the grille shell and recheck it possible just unhook it altogether.

My question is is what would cause this?? Could it be one of the relays with the harness or ?? Bc as soon as i disconnected the hd headlight harness the truck fired up (of course i didnt have headlights) but everything else worked fine. The whole time its been installed its been AMAZING but this one time it caused the truck to not start and i was just curious what the problem could be??

 

[bluex]

Last time my truck did that it was a loose battery cable. Do you have the HD harness hooked to a side post accessory bolt like this?

You must be registered for see images

If your trying to hook the harness to a stock bolt that could cause a connection issue. I would also check the ground cable off the battery. Since your capacitor lost power the bad connection could be there. Side post cables are bad to corrode under the insulation where you can't see it. I am putting my money on a loose/bad/weak ground connection. As you messed with the positive side you probably moved the battery around enough that made the ground connection better an then the truck cranked....

 

[Chris.G.Jr.]

Last time my truck did that it was a loose battery cable. Do you have the HD harness hooked to a side post accessory bolt like this?

You must be registered for see images

If your trying to hook the harness to a stock bolt that could cause a connection issue. I would also check the ground cable off the battery. Since your capacitor lost power the bad connection could be there. Side post cables are bad to corrode under the insulation where you can't see it. I am putting my money on a loose/bad/weak ground connection. As you messed with the positive side you probably moved the battery around enough that made the ground connection better an then the truck cranked....

i actually have something similar to that but its just a bolt with two nuts on it since thats all we had at the time, so i had it connected between the bolt head and a nut then there is another nut butted against the first then its the cables and then screws to battery,

 

[Ruger_556]

I would go to a top post battery and ditch those stupid adapters in a side post...

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[Chris.G.Jr.]

I would go to a top post battery and ditch those stupid adapters in a side post...

You must be registered for see images attach

then i have to buy new battery cables altogether?

 

[bluex]

If your cables are original they are 19 years old. Replacement might be a good idea...

 

[Ruger_556]

then i have to buy new battery cables altogether?

Not if they're in good shape... I just crimped new ends on mine.

 

[Chris.G.Jr.]

If your cables are original they are 19 years old. Replacement might be a good idea...

i personally havent ever replaced them the truck only has about 160-170k on it, acceptionally clean under the hood

Not if they're in good shape... I just crimped new ends on mine.

hmm may end up with that result

 

[bluex]

They might look fine on the outside but like i said they corrode on the inside under the insulation. this has more to do with time than mileage....

 

[Ruger_556]

They might look fine on the outside but like i said they corrode on the inside under the insulation. this has more to do with time than mileage....

Emphasis on the if they're in good shape part... Do a voltage drop test and that will tell you what condition they're in. If they're fine no reason to replace them (Lot's of $$$ anymore for cables)

Use a multimeter set on DC volts

- Hook up your test leads on either side of the battery cable (Battery post to starter/or battery post to ground)
- Disable the engine from starting (Pull injector fuse on TBI trucks)
- Crank the engine for 10 seconds

The result should be less than 1.00 volt on each cable. Most often you'll see something 0.1-.3 volts on a good cable. What your are doing is measuring the voltage lost in the cable. Most problems originate at the crimped end with sub par shrink or none at all.