Help !! truck won't start

[debles99]

November 24/2003

1998 Chev 3/4 ton extended cab 4x4
150,000 k, 6.5 turbo, no cat or muffler
no other mods.

Saskatchewan, Canada
Current Temperature: -9 degrees C

Truck was working fine 2 nights ago, came home and parked it in the garage. Yesterday, went to start and the wait to start came up for the usual time, then tried the starter, the headlights dimmed and
...nothing...no starter action at all.

(In canada we have daytime running lights that come on when the ignition is on). I checked every fuse in the truck, swapped the AC relay with the starter relay because they are the same to make sure it wasn't a relay problem.

Put a meter on the small post on the starter solenoid and hit the key and nothing showed on the meter.

Got out my remove starter cord, hooked it up to the post on the solenoid and the positive post on the solenoid, bumped it and the starter turned
like brand new.

Turned the ignition on, waited for the plugs, bumped the remove starter and cranked the engine about 20 times, lots of smoke but no real cylinder
firing. Thought maybe the key also had to be twisted all the way to start, jumped in and now the starter would work with the key. Tried several times to get it going, but it would just kind of rattle on a few cylinders and
never quite get going.

(It was about -15 degrees C in the garage and the truck hadn't been plugged in, but usually it will start even when slightly colder when it's in the
garage).

After a few tries, the starter would not work off the key again, and for some reason, even after I turned off the key, the lift pump was still
throbbing. I don't ever recall the lift pump ever running with the key off.

I called the local GM dealer and they said to check the glow plugs and that maybe the ignition switch was nfg.

I am going out to check the glow plugs now. Just curious, at this temp how many glow plugs would have to be out for the truck to not start?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. The GM shop is swamped for at least 3 days and it's a $100.00 tow job to get the truck there.

Les

debles99

[ucdavis]

Need to break this down into parts as it could be a lotta different things.
1) Glow plus seem most obvious, tho the starter-no-crank is in a place by itself. @ those temps (glad I'm not there; you Canuk's are a hardy lot) I'd guess you need at least 6 plugs firing decently. To test controller: should have batt volts across two large terminals w/key off, ~10.5V w/key on & controller snapped into action (you should hear loud click when controller solenoid actuates). The 10.5V may vary if you have burned out plugs; more burned out plugs = higher volts (less resistance). If you have bad plugs, you can replace all, or just the bad ones; bad ones usually have infinite resistance between the threaded case & the spade.
2) Should heat the block to eliminate that as an issue. I presume you have proper anti-freeze.
3) gelled fuel will mess you up. Fuel filter bowl has a 100 watt heater @ its base; you should be able to feel the difference in temp @ base of bowl w/heater on (key on). If not, heater is out or signal to heater is not being activated.
4) Battery power needs to be at acceptable (i.e. pretty good) level & cables in good shape. Check for full charge, no corrosion on terminals or cables, etc.
5) Grounds seem more dicey in winter. Start @ batt & check all grounds for clean (bright metal) tight connections, incl. all straps from engine to frame or batt.
6) Starter trouble sounds like either cables/connections (insufficient current to turn starter cuz of corrosion; this can be intermittent when it starts) or solenoid (can also be intermittent when it starts).
This would make it two problems at least- one for tough ignition, & one for tough starter signal.
Check this stuff out & let us know.

[debles99]

Thanks

Was at GM today and almost all the lights on the dash were on & or flickering, ABS, Security, Brakes, Engine Light.

They managed to reset all the codes except the ABS, and although it doesn't seem to work anymore, I almost enjoy driving with the old style brakes, where you could actually feel what the tires were doing on the ice.

Anyway, as I left town, after test driving a couple of 2001 6.0 Gas jobs, the GM guys called me on my cell and said that their appraiser was free and wanted to see the truck. I pulled of into an approach and blasted the throttle for a second to kind of u-ball the back end to turn around, but had to stop to let a car go by. As I was on a slope, the back end started to slide into the ditch, no problem I thought, a quick flip of the 4x4 button would solve that....not so.

The 4 Hi light came on and a relay clicked, but the light would not stay on, just kept flashing, and no front wheel lock. I had just shifted to 2 Hi 4 minutes ago. I finally got back on the road in 2 wheel drive, but still, 8 hours later can't get the front wheels to lock in. I can hear the switch thing on the differential snapping in and out or whatever it does, but the 4 Hi light just keeps flashing, 4 Lo does the same thing.

Anyway, this afternoon, I managed to get the key to work for once, tested one of the glow plug wires and it had 12v or so on it. Turned the key off, tried again and it worked 3 or 4 more times, then crapped out once. I smacked the bottom of the steering column with my hand, tried the key and it worked again.

This was about 12:00 noon. Now it's 8:30 pm and I just came in from the garage, now up to almost
-3 degrees c. The key would not work again since I got home at 6:00 pm. I stuck my remote starter button on, turned the key on, pressed the button and after about 8 cranks, she fired up. I is a little harder each time as the temp drops, because if the key does not work, I never get the glow plugs to cycle.

Question is...if I really need to, can I pull one glow plug wire off, jumper it for about 3 seconds with 12v and have it backfeed through the wire to the rest of the plugs, just enough to get the truck started tomorrow morning, or will this fry the glow plug controller.

Maybe it would work better if I unplugged what seems to be like the two spark plug weather caps on the top of what I assume is the glow plug controller, and feed through that wire by itself totally disconnected from the actual controller.

Any ideas.

Thanks

debles99

[charliepeterson]

Plug the truck in. If the batteries are original being '98 one or both could be junk. All cable connections MUST be good. To get a longer glow time unplug the coolant temperature sensor next to the thermostat. I've found to test the glow plugs, unplug each one and with a "test" light clip on the battery "+" post touch the spade connector on the glow plug. If it doesn't light then that plug is dead. Any more than two dead plugs starting will be tough in cold weather. Replace them in sets.

[debles99]

Finally got the problem solved. Turned out to be a bad ground connector on the back passenger side of the intake manifold. The wire was inside the crimped connector, but was either just about broken or corroded. Put a new crimped ring connector on and truck started just fine and all the goofy gauge lights went out.

The only thing left to fix is the ABS light which will go off when the truck is restarted but comes back on as soon as the truck starts to roll ahead or backwards without even touching the brake pedal.

Although this would be nice to have fixed, just for peace of mind, I sure to enjoy the way the brakes work without the ABS more than when it was working. I can finally feel what the front brakes are doing on the ice and can more easily tell when the wheels are getting close to locking up and skidding.

If anybody has any ideas on what the ABS problem might be, I sure would appreciate your 2 bits worth.

debles99

[turbovair]

Lately my truck began feeling like it was harder and harder to get stopped.I felt as though I had to press the pedal damn near through the floor.No ABS trouble light ever came on. One day as an experiment I removed the ABS fuse per some info I recieved on another thread, and lo and behold, the truck stops MUCH better.I'm running this way until I can figure out what gives.Is the pump motor supposed to be running when the engine is on, or only during stops?With the engine running it is inop.