-
long time....
Been gone a while. That accident screwed me up a bit. Not injuries just extra bs that took up all my bandwidth. I did not succeed with your excellent advice Geez. I couldn't even get the scum to send me the other party's statement. Winding myself up again already.....
OK used the truck a few times hauled a lot of dirt and parked it a few weeks ago. I decided I will rebuild it. First I need to move it. I go out and there is nothing when I turn the key. I plug in the charger and mess around cleaning the mower and sharpened the blade. Still no juice. I change the plug the charger is plugged into still nothing. Then I pay closer attention and the charger is telling me the battery is fully charged.
I put in a new multi switch and ignition switch last year before the accident and I had to splice in a wire on the multiswitch/ignition harness where one of mine had burnt up inside the connector. I also did the 90amp upgrade of the alternator. All the fuses look good and its been a while so I can't even guess what might be wrong except that this thing went electrically bad the first time I removed the dash to put in a radio when I bought it 18 years ago and has given me intermittent electrical problems in the dash ever since.
How does one begin to diagnose this condition?
-
I got to thinking the charger didn't make its usual sounds so I went out and just plugged it in and looked at it and the light came on for a second them went out and the indicator indicates charge in that state. So I connected up my Dakota jump fashion and turned the key and sure enough I have power. I have it charging via jump right now if that doesn't work in 5 minutes I'll just put the Dakota battery in it to get it started then hook up the old (only a couple years old) battery in the Ram50.
So much for Harbor freight's charger. I wonder what is drawing off the power?
-
Got it started by changing batteries around. Drove normal. It started giving me trouble near the top of the hill when the headlights were on. Turned them off and it was fine. I think this being a later model multi switch it isn't quite right. It turns on the dash turn signal indicators when I turn on the headlights too. All works fine in daylight though :)
-
It sounds like it's bridging power somewhere that it shouldn't. Maybe next time turn the lights on and do a lap of the truck - see if it's doing something weird like powering turn signals etc
-
Well it was dead this morning. I talked to the manager ate HF and she said to bring it in and for the $15.99 warranty coverage she'd give me a new one with a 2year warranty. I had to mess around fixing my outside plug so that ate up the day. I have it trickle charging with the neg cable off now. Hopefully tomorrow it will start. Then I have to figure out where the drain it. I either connected that 90amp alt wrong or something, probably the radio, is drawing constant power enough to drain the battery down if I leave it for a while. I find that weird because just before I parked it a few weeks ago it has sat for months and fired up fine, you know with me priming the carb. And that battery is new within a year of me getting hit.
-
-
Thanks Xbox. It started easily enough this morning, so I got it pulled up the driveway and I have the neg cable disconnected until I can mess with it more and find the parasitic draw.
