I'm not even sure how to explain this, it's a little convoluted I know.
I turn the key and click click click. I put a booster on the battery and it takes right off. Brand new battery. I started it the other day, drove and hour, checked battery voltage when running and I got 14.3 volts. Shut the truck off, check the battery and I got 12. something. Turn the key and click click click, and battery voltage dropped to 10v.
Again, with the booster it starts right up. Cleaned the clamps when I installed the new battery so that shouldn't be it, and it was doing this with the old battery, which is why I bought a new one.
Anyone see this before?
By the way, 1997 Tacoma, 6 cyl.

 

How many miles ??

After all your truck is getting close to 20 years old

Poor ground connection

Loose or Corroded positive connection

Time for some tender loving care of the starter

A mix of all these conditions

 

Pretty close to 330K miles. I've been checking connections as best I can find them all and haven't found anything loose or corroded yet. "Tender loving care of the starter"? What have you got in mind? This is an Autozone after-market starter, but it seems ok with sufficient power going to it. In fact I pulled it and had Auto zone check it and it passed their little machine test,
And thanks for the response.

 

If the starter tests out fine then it is a poor connection some place

Battery terminals clean and tight

One of the first things I always do is upgrade the ground cables it seems to cure all kinds of electrical gremlins

Measure the voltage to the starter solenoid it might be on the low side by adding the booster it ramps up enough to crank

 

Again, thanks for responding. How many volts should I be getting at the starter? I assume 12V? And should the battery voltage (checked at battery posts) be dropping to 10V after just one attempt to start?

 

No the battery should hold pretty steady at @12.5 even after a few attempts cranking the engine over

Do you have a battery charger to charge the battery ??

Sounds almost like your new battery is not holding a charge

By New battery you mean new with a warranty ?? Take it back and get a replacement

 

The battery might well be the problem. I won't be able to pull it until tonight, but I'm going to start there.

 

probably your starter, or battery check it first.

 

have 1986 toyo 22r that has lose rod bearings they are 0.25 could I put 0.30 in to tighten it up

 

It appears the first battery I bought was defective. Returned it, put the new one on last night and the truck fired right up. One more time, thank you all for your help!

 

Glad this problem has been fixed!!

Just goes to show that new parts out of the box sometimes just fail.

Since this was a new battery pretty much everyone would think it can`t be the new battery

 

Yes, I was thinking of that this morning. All signs pointed to the battery, so I replaced it. Still the signs pointed to the battery, but now I was ignoring evidence because "it can't be" the battery.