New Member, Joined Yesterday. Cedar Rapids IA

[movietvet]

Having fun now... Lol

Good nuf for gubnut work.....wow!

 

[BlueManLou]

BlueManLou,

We got this. Primary failure categories to consider:

* Good battery is a victim of an aftermarket alarm installed by the PO.

* Good battery is victim of parasitic draw on far side of fuses.

* Good battery is victim of parasitic draw from one or more damaged diodes in
the alternator's bridge rectifier. (diodes in bridge rectifiers)

* Bad battery self-discharging. One or more of the 6 cells are self-discharging
due to conductive muck on bottom interconnecting plates where they shouldn't be.
(Muck = plate material shed due to age, rough roads, discharged battery froze, etc.)

****

Recovery plan:

1) Anything aftermarket installed in the truck? If so, temporarily disconnect, and see if
truck will now work at least twice the observed failure interval. If this fixes it, then
delete the aftermarket item. Or upgrade it to a more battery-friendly version.

2) If step #1 wasn't applicable or didn't fix the issue, then set up ammeter in series
(note most meters have spendy 10A internal fuse, so consider running ammeter through a
8A fused jumper) and measure the milliamp current draw when the truck is OFF.

Record the value, and if it's high, then start pulling fuses, starting at the IP (Instrument
Panel) fuse block. Most will make no difference, but when you hit the correct fuse the
multimeter reading will drop appreciably. Write down which fuse it is, look up that
fuse's power distribution circuit in the Service Manual, and then to figure out is the
milliamps being drawn are normal for that option, or is it excessive? This may require
some quality rabbit hole time. :0)

3) If none of the fuses provided the Aha moment, then temporarily disconnect the
alternator and see if that fixes the parasitic draw? If so, then remove alternator
and have it tested for free at the parts store. Usually one or more blown diodes
will be picked up by the test station and be flagged as a fail.

4) Still no joy? Fully charge the battery, and then disconnect it from the truck.
If the truck was discharging over, say, a 5 day stretch, then leave the battery
disconnected for the same time interval, reconnect it, and then see if the
truck will or will not start.

****

Sounds like more work than it really is. Maybe do the battery check first, and
then depending on how that goes, then dive into the truck itself. (ie: Battery
as victim, truck as perpetrator.) Of course the converse could be true (truck
is victim, battery as perpetrator) ...but given the stream of replacement parts
I'm thinking the odds are truck: 51, battery: 49.

Hmmm...you just posted a photo, looks like you are already off to the races?

Let us know what you find.

Cheers --

Great Stuff Road Trip. Thanks.

Earlier, after the photo above, I was poking around by the battery, and on the negative battery cable, found a split off wire from the negative cable which connected to a brace under the hood which was frayed with some of the strands broken. I just got down cutting that out and replacing the wire, and verified it was a good connection back to the negative bat terminal.

I had everything disconnected and had been charging the battery. After I replaced the cable I hooked the battery back up and got the truck started. All the lights in the back are still inop, so my fun back there will continue tomorrow.

As you can see in that photo, there were three wires not connected to anything, with only the white wire connecting to the frame. The housing itself was pushed up in the area of the bumper, as it was broken off its bracket for the the trailer lights connection.

I found a non OEM blue wire in the mix unconnected hanging by the three way connector junction which is right next to the frame at the left rear. That wire ran down the length of the frame and was coiling around the frame and some metal line and fished through a metal strap at the tranny, continuing on into the engine bay, and then fished through a grommet hole into the cab under the dash. I haven't dug into that yet to see where it is spliced or if it is running to the fuse panel. I don't know what the wire was for, but it wasn't connected at the rear end to anything.

We are going up in the 60s tomorrow, so it will be a warmer day to be crawling under the truck.

I will see if it starts in morning and will keep all your suggestions in mind and give the applicable ones a try.

I am with you on the thought that the truck is killing the battery, as I have gone through a few over the last 7 years I have been back in Iowa.

Thanks Again!

 

[movietvet]

Great Stuff Road Trip. Thanks.

Earlier, after the photo above, I was poking around by the battery, and on the negative battery cable, found a split off wire from the negative cable which connected to a brace under the hood which was frayed with some of the strands broken. I just got down cutting that out and replacing the wire, and verified it was a good connection back to the negative bat terminal.

I had everything disconnected and had been charging the battery. After I replaced the cable I hooked the battery back up and got the truck started. All the lights in the back are still inop, so my fun back there will continue tomorrow.

As you can see in that photo, there were three wires not connected to anything, with only the white wire connecting to the frame. The housing itself was pushed up in the area of the bumper, as it was broken off its bracket for the the trailer lights connection.

I found a non OEM blue wire in the mix unconnected hanging by the three way connector junction which is right next to the frame at the left rear. That wire ran down the length of the frame and was coiling around the frame and some metal line and fished through a metal strap at the tranny, continuing on into the engine bay, and then fished through a grommet hole into the cab under the dash. I haven't dug into that yet to see where it is spliced or if it is running to the fuse panel. I don't know what the wire was for, but it wasn't connected at the rear end to anything.

We are going up in the 60s tomorrow, so it will be a warmer day to be crawling under the truck.

I will see if it starts in morning and will keep all your suggestions in mind and give the applicable ones a try.

I am with you on the thought that the truck is killing the battery, as I have gone through a few over the last 7 years I have been back in Iowa.

Thanks Again!

If you have a multi meter, you can measure the draw that could be draining the battery. Watch a few you tubes for how to do that.

 

[Supercharged111]

If you have a multi meter, you can measure the draw that could be draining the battery. Watch a few you tubes for how to do that.

Unless his truck is like everything I own and the parasitic draw disappears when the multimeter comes out.

 

[BlueManLou]

If you have a multi meter, you can measure the draw that could be draining the battery. Watch a few you tubes for how to do that.

Will do, Thanks!

 

[BlueManLou]

Doesn't get much better on a 63 day in February in Iowa!

 

[BlueManLou]

Started right up this morning and got it into the garage. Shooting wires on the backend which has no lights at all.

I believe I found G400 but the only ground to it was the trailer plug module shown in my previous photo, which had all wires disconnected from it but the ground at G400

Still looking to find where these tail assemblies are grounded at.

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

Started right up this morning and got it into the garage. Shooting wires on the backend which has no lights at all.

I believe I found G400 but the only ground to it was the trailer plug module shown in my previous photo, which had all wires disconnected from it but the ground at G400

Still looking to find where these tail assemblies are grounded at.

Many times there is wire hackery on the rear light harness that goes across the back of the truck, particularly if a previous owner has attempted to install trailer wiring connectors. This is why I recommend the connector adapter harness (these used to be made by Hopkins under the Hoppy brand, but several companies have versions of this now). It plugs into and between the halves of the rear lighting wiring harness, and is pretty much a plug and play setup. Just be sure to hook the ground wire to a good location (I used the rear frame cross member on the crew cab because I could get to it easily). No ground, no trailer lights (guess how I found that out lolol).

 

[BlueManLou]

Success.

All the taillights, brake lights, and turn signals are working in the back. Even got the license lights working.

Got the taillight harness re-grounded to G400. Besides the white wire for the trailer module, there was a small 6" 18 ga wire with an eyelet connected to G400, which was broke off and hanging. The tail light harness had a splice for the black ground which fed up to the taillights and the license lights, but it was a stub of about 4 inches with a piece of blue wire which had been spliced to it and covered with electrical tape. I think this was the mate to the blue wire I had found by the trailer module which wasn't connected to anything in the back, but was wrapped around the brake line, stretched down the frame, and fished through the strap on the fuel tank which I had mentioned in a previous post. That wire ran into the engine bay and back into the cab under the dash, and must have been supplying the ground for the taillights.

We got a new wire and spliced it to the black stub from the harness and attached it to G400.

What??? Still nothing in the back.... ??? After my son and I scratched our heads for a bit, we decided to try installing the original taillight assemblies, and wouldn't you know it... Everything works.

In summary, there were two problems. The ground for the tails was a broken wire (to the cab), and the new tail assemblies I had just installed, didn't work.

Monitoring to make sure we no longer have a power drain on the battery.

Thanks for all the tips and help.

 

[BlueManLou]

Doesn't get much better on a 63 day in February in Iowa!

You guys can't really see it, but on the cell phone is a picture of Hank Williams Sr, who was blasting through a Bluetooth speaker while we were working on the truck.