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Actually it appears that this issue was a legacy of a previous owner, they apparently thought they knew what he was doing on several things.
This is the section of wire that was causing the problem:
A few stupid electrical things have been attempted on my truck over its life. The previous wire had been poorly tapped into (I suspect a sound system or something similarly silly) and it allowed the wiring to corrode. So when the battery shifted a hair when going up or down hill, over a bump, looked at funny, it lost contact with the + side of the battery just enough to have the ECU not get the power it needs to run.
On the bright side, in addition to my truck working again, it's also running better thanks to all the ignition parts I replaced. Cheaper than I was expecting too, bill came out to less than $30.
Skypilot,
I'm fairly surprised it didn't have any other symptoms as well. I would have thought it would have affected other system components too.
I put it through its paces though, buzzed around on some hilly and rutted dirt roads. Didn't give me any grief and kept ticking along.
Odin, bswarm, wyoming9, grumpin, MAINETOY,
Thank you all for your input and assistance while I was trying to sort out what the heck had broken on my truck. It's extremely helpful to have a different perspective and set of ideas, even when the solution was something obvious I feel like I should have noticed. I feel a bit like an idiot for not checking the power, but I also feel slightly clever for getting a more experienced set of eyes on it when I realized I was out of my depth.
Your're not finished yet! You really should invest in new battery cables to get rid of those temp terminals, and a battery hold down. A future project for you.
Actually it appears that this issue was a legacy of a previous owner, they apparently thought they knew what he was doing on several things.
At least it was under $30
You didn't state what condition that wire was in (spliced) but yet I feel as I have failed you. Why is that you ask?
Well this is what I encountered when I first purchased my truck. I didn't have any problems with it but it was just a matter of time.
The lower one is the same one you had a problem with. I was suspect of it when I purchased my truck so I put it on my to do list.
Anytime I see a butt connector that doesn't have adhesive lined shrink tube on it I'm redoing the splice!
I also noticed alot of those same wires looked pretty bad when I was hunting at the salvage yards. I might have to add this to my guide.
The top one was the ground strap that goes from the back of the head to the firewall.
your're not finished yet! You really should invest in new battery cables to get rid of those temp terminals, and a battery hold down. A future project for you.
+1000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Difficult to see but it looks as if the bolt on that marine terminal doesn't look so good either.
I'd probably replace them both with marine terminals and get new POS & NEG cables.
This is what and who I purchased my last set from. I've had a few different sets over the years and these are nice. You can usually get them bulk for a little cheaper but when you do it that way you usually end up with two that are the same size and one won't fit the battery terminal very good. Suckage
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Marine-Boat-Battery-Terminals-End-Connector-w-Wing-Top-Post-Car-Automotive-/161168831247?pt=Boat_Parts_Accessories_Gear&hash=item258669330f&vxp=mtr
The terminal connectors on there are actually pretty new (6-7 months maybe?), some of the wires as well (neg/ground side). I do need to go through and tidy up the electrical system a bit more though, and I'm pondering what I should do for the battery's seat belt.
The terminal connectors on there are actually pretty new (6-7 months maybe?)
As bswarm mentioned that NEG terminal connector is a temporary fix. Ideally you don't want any bare wire exposed, ESPECIALLY CONNECTED TO THAT TYPE OF BATTERY!
I've got some heavy gauge wire somewhere, I'll be getting to it when the rain clears. Just wondering if I have large enough diameter heat shrink tubing, I'd rather it be neat and right. I'll probably fix the Frankenstein job that was done on the trailer wiring while I'm at it.
Right, so I decided to clean up my problem cable properly. That bit was slightly bothersome as I had to remove the electrical box and remove the old OEM wire that was well crimped in place, without breaking the thing. After that I fired up the soldering iron and got the wire that had previously failed, replaced with a slightly heavier (8 gauge) wire.
Then I figured, heck while I'm here and I have this stuff out, why not take care of the hack job on my tail lights?
Dear god, what a pain in the ass mess that was. I started on it around 2pm and 4.5 hours later it's all together and working. Now I have a PSA for those of you who are thinking of wiring anything, learn to solder and use the following splice:
It's been the goto since the telegraph was in vogue, NASA still uses it. It's damn stable, and will hold up longer than the wire alone. Please, please, please don't cause problems for folks like me down the road when they are working on your vehicle or, at that point, their vehicle.
03-18-2015, 09:00 AM
At least it was under $30
