Archived No Juice to Start, no interior power

[JThiessen]

No symptoms leading up to this - rig is dead in the garage. Fluke multimeter shows 1. 12 V measured across terminals - but I'm not absolutley sure I made the correct settings on the meter (just turned it to V, swithed it to AC, and took measurement).



No dash lights, no radio, no idot lights... ... nothing on turn of starter. All fuses are good. One other thing - the steering wheel is not locked as it should be when key is out. Ran gear selector through the gears and back into park several times, removed key, still no lock on steering wheel, and of course still no start or power. I forgot to try to turn on the lights to see if I had any juice at all..... will do that when I get home.

 

[AKAMAC]

DC system... ... ... . Measure with meter on DC voltage. The symbol is a dotted line above a straight line on the meter. Let us know.

 

[DHayden]

Clean your terminals and insure the connections tight. Even if they are on tight now corrosion can be underneath and make a bad connection. A little coke-cola works well to clean her up if its corroded.

 

[Missouri Mule]

JThiessen,

Did you give the wheel a good turn?



Assumming you did and doesn't lock you need to use your multi- meter or trouble light to check out connector for ignition switch.



Make sure you have power going to connector/conections(you should have one wire hot at all times.

Turn ignition to on (run) position and see how many connetions lite up in connector (to ig switch).

Turn to key to start this should turn off most components (most connections will not lite up) except power going to pcm/ starter relay/fuel shut off solenoid.

You mite have lost a ground around there also.



Your ignition switch sounds like your problem.

 

[JThiessen]

Ok, so this morning I pulled it out of the garage so I could get a set of jumpers on it and it fired right up. ALT guage showed a steady 14V. After running for a half hour I shut it down and went to Costco and bought an Optima for it.

When I got home, it had enough juice still to start right away again.

Now it has a brand new battery (should have been replaced by now anyway), but I think I only cured the syptom. THe steering wheel lock still does not engage - so I suspect that it is broke in some fashion. But would this really cause a complete drain of the battery???



I double checked all connectors, wires, etc. , in the engine compartment and all look clean and tight.

 

[AKAMAC]

I'm assuming this is not your truck in sig.

 

[JThiessen]

Nope - its on the 2000 Jeep (forgot to put that in the first note) - same electrics as the Ram... .

 

[Takomax]

Sounds similar to a prob I am having with my other truck (damned gas engine!)... .



My battery was draining itself. For a year no problems. Then all of sudden - dead. So, I took test light and did some sleuthing.



First, I removed the neg from it's terminal. I then connected a 12v light bulb (actually an LED) between the connector and the terminal on the battery. WHoa, it lit up. So now I know that m battery isn't defective. It is getting drained.



I then took out all the fuses one at a time to see if the light would go out. No luck. I took out all the relays. No luck.



I then disconnected everything from the Pos term except the main hot wire that goes to the starter. I haven't disconnected this yet because it is a PITA to get too and it's greasy as mafia hairdo.



COuld it be a defective starter that is causing the drain?



-Carl (aka Takomax)

Baldwin, GA