No juice to the starter.......

[David_Jennings]

No click, no juice, no nothing. It did the same thing on Monday, but I tightened the battery terminals and it started rigt up. It worked great until tonight (Friday). Now, again (when my wife was driving it),nothing. Loose ground wire? Starter? Wouldn't I hear the solenoid clicking if it was the starter (unless, I guess, it was a bad solenoid.) Loose terminals again?Obviously I need to change the terminal bolts as advised on the Members Page, but I don't think that's the problem here. New batteries from Walmart last year. Hint: it happened six months ago, but tightening the terminals fixed it then, too. Tomorrow I'll try tightening the terminals again, but I have to suss this out or I can't let my wife drive it. Oh, it's a 1999 K2500 GMC SLE 6.5. Thanks.

[ 10-24-2003, 09:20 PM: Message edited by: David Jennings ]

[goodmonkey]

Check the positive cable between the battery and the starter. My truck had seemed slower turning over, therefore harder to start. About a week later, it wouldn't turn over at all, and no click from the solinoid. Turns out it was corrosion in the cable end next to the starter. The actual end looked a little bad, but split open the insulation and blam, too much resistance for what is needed to turn her over. Becareful though if you go to replace the cable. The one I bought had too much exposed and grounded out on the starter (I didn't have good lighting). Didn't notice it till I got a large spark in my face when connecting the negitave terminal on the batteries. Also watch that it won't short out with the control wire either. That can blow your ignition fuse (I was having all types of trouble that day.)

[David_Jennings]

It started this morning without my touching anything. I tightened the connections, but couldn't get to the positive lead on the starter. How the heck do you reach that? Anyway, I'm going to remove the batteries and test them. This happened once with my boat, and it turned out to be a bad cell. They crank like crazy, or don't. Has to be a cell, right? Thanks.

[goodmonkey]

I had to reach through the wheel well to get to the starter. Also check the condition of what I guess is called the remote cable. It is the purple wire attached to the solinoid. Check the voltage of the starter cable from the battery. It should be the same as the batteries, within 0.2 volots. Batteries should read about 12.4v with no accessories on, if everything is okay. If it reads significantly less then the batteries, replace the cable.

If you suspect a bad cell, disconnect the batteries from one another and look at the voltages. If one reads less then 11.5v, and the other reads above 12, then it is safe to say there is something wrong with that battery.

Could also be your ignition switch. I've heard tells of it giving people problems with stalling, so I figure it could with starting also. I'd be willing to bet it is a cable though. Hope this helps you out some.