I can't figure this out. The battery is good, alternator charges it, voltage stays at 13.6-7 while running, amp draw is .1-2 miliamps with truck off, but the freaking thing won't start without being jumped off! I can turn the key and the dash lights up and the buzzer comes on, but when I try to start it the lights dim and the volt meter in-dash plummets and all I hear is a clicking/buzzing type noise from the passenger side floorboard or possibly the passenger side lower engine bay (?) . I can jump it off my Tundra and it starts right up and everything works fine. I can turn every accessory on and the alternator is charging the battery and it's all fine and dandy. Does anybody have any idea what this could be?

 

What year truck & engine? Here's a good write up by RADrunner. Post # 42 https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f199...00/index3.html

You need to check the voltage at the starter under load (while trying to start) chances are your not getting the full 13.6 volts to the starter. I had the same problem, I was only getting 9 volts down to the starter. Here's another link, shows an easy way to make a test jig so you can check the voltage at the starter under load: http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTricks/Starter.shtml

 

Thanks for the vote of confidence, RustED, but his symptoms point to bad battery or poor connection to the battery

SilentBounty,
What truck-model-year? (A problem well-stated is a problem half-solved.)

Have you thoroughly fixed this earlier issue?

How did you determine that the battery is "good"?
Alternator output of 13.6V is not an indication of a good battery. You could disconnect "B" (charging wire) of alt from battery, start the truck and output of a good alt would still be around 13.6V - That is without a battery connected to it.

This is more like it.
Also absolutely need to double check connections, power and ground sides.
make sure you have shiny metal contacting shiny metal. Grey metal is not bare metal.
If your battery connectors are in bad shape, consider using marine terminals like this.
Make sure your battery is not leaking acid.
Coat parts with silicone dielectric grease (Permatex). My terminals still look like new after a year of use with that. Not a single side of corrosion.

 

Yea I think I did not state this well enough. I am on mobile right now but I will check those links as soon as I get home from work. Thank yall for the help! It is a 1995 Toyota pickup v6 3.0 and the battery read at 12.7 when I put it in the truck. It has been load tested and confirmed working by my multimeter and by Walmart (which that doesn't say much) and the truck does run with no battery in it, i haven't tested its voltage with no battery. And I am using brand new marine battery terminals with a marine battery. The battery is a week and a half old as well. I't has started it before and I'm starting to wonder if it has enough cold cranking amps for the cold temp right now. I will definstly look at those links when I get home and check into all that tonorrow and report back.

 

And yes I did fix that issue youasked about it turned out to be the fusible lin k, which I replaced and that hasn't shown a problem since. I checked for continuity between the fusible link at the cable and the fuse box so that is still good as well.

 

I would guess your measuring System voltage across the battery terminals??

Measure from the positive terminal to the engine block see what you get.As the starter grounds through the bolts and the nose contact with the bell housing .

A poor ground gets one a no crank condition most often blamed on every thing else.

I have been running Marine Terminals on every thing for years.

The buzzing could be the Circuit opening relay making noise.

 

Yes I was testing the voltage from both battery posts. It's dark and cold now so I will check that tomorrow haha. As for the grounds, are there any specific ones I should clean up?

 

All of them, everything, everywhere. Silicone paste is your friend! It's cheap and will keep the sockets from oxidizing. makes a great lubricant as well.

For o-rings and such.

 

Good for keeping those male-to-female connectors from corroding I got to reading the things rustED posted and tomorrow i am going to test the starter voltage under load and make sure the full voltage is reaching it. If not I will check the connections/grounds, and if that doesn't work either I'm going to do the starter relay to battery positive on pin 4 mod.

 

I had the same problem a few months back. What I did was take off the ground wire from the starter to body, cleaned it off and cleaned where it is attached to body. Then did the same for the battery ground wire. Truck has started up every time since. Hope this works for you.

 

There is no ground from the starter to body unless someone installed one on your truck

 

Thank all of you so much!! I finally found the problem. I took all of the ground wires/cables of and cleaned EVERYTHING with a wire brush. I looked on the main ground cable and when I took the battery clamp off of it, it was corroded really bad. Cleaned it up and now I can start no problem. Thanks again to all of you for your help!

 

If your not using a crimp on lug or terminal and have one of those emergency terminals to get you home.

You will continue to have problems.

 

If you're talking about a crimp on to the battery cable that attaches to the battery clamp then yes I do have that. I coated the posts and terminals in silicone spray because I figured it might help with protection a little. Maybe I won't have more problems.

 

aaand this is why cleaning up the power and grounds is the first thing I do when I encounter hard starting, or charging problems.

 

Yea after this I have learned the lesson that grounds can do strange things.

 

Glad you got it sorted out!
There's been alot of threads on here lately about alternators and starter problems, so much so I think cleaning battery POS and NEG cables and their contact areas along with voltage drop testing should be a sticky!

Normally one of the things that is suggested is to clean ALL the main power and ground wires and their contact areas. The normal reply is they look good.
This is pretty much a caned response meaning-
They didn't clean them because they "L@@ked" good on the outside so they didn't bother to clean them The problem could easily be right at the connection where you can't see it until it is dissassembled and cleaned!
I just can't take people serious when they won't do this one simple thing. Plenty of people have replaced a battery, alternator or a starter before they do this one step and still have problems.
Knock the simple stuff off the list first!



Doing a quick visual inspection doesn't cut it!



To be reliable all contact area's must be clean and shiny like the day it rolled off the assembly line. With the small power and ground wires on these trucks just a little corrosion can create extra work for the alternator (think life span), reduced light levels from the interior and headlights, cause starter problems (spin slow, not at all, clicking) or even cause wires to overheat and smoke.


buuut anyhow, I'm outta here

 

Wyoming you are correct I just have two grounds coming from my batt. Not sure why I thought the second was from the starter.

 

There is nothing wrong with running a ground cable to the lower starter bolt

I have found that making all new ground cables and the positive from battery to starter and from the B terminal of the Alternator to the battery or fuse block.

At this time it also gets a new battery the most capacity that will fit in the case.

Cures most all of the starting and charging problems .

One must know most of these vehicles maintenance was a foreign word and not undertaken.

 

Those emergency terminals don't make for good long term electrical connections if you use them to clamp on to loose twisted wire. However they can work very well long term if you bolt cables up to them. You can fab up an adapter that connects to the two small terminal bolts and goes to a large bolt. Good electrical connections are important, that is why I always solder crimp on terminals to wires. After I solder the wires I clean the connection with a tooth brush and rubbing alcohol. Then I wrap it up with electrical tape and put two layers of heat shrink over the tape.