Posted by dhermesc on February 15, 2023 at 06:22:21 from (12.149.56.202):
I own 3 pickups. Last week I hit the trifecta with one truck down with a bad transmission, the second truck down with the slave cylinder on the clutch failing, and the third refused to start.
The first two were easy diagnosis and the repairs straight forward, new transmission and the other replaced the clutch setup from the pedal to the flywheel. The third one has everyone stumped.
An old 1984 F150 with a 351W and C6 transmission. Pretty straight forward. Except - last fall the truck would act like the battery was dead - sometimes immediately after it had been shut off and other times it would go days without an issue. When it acted like the battery was dead you could jump start it and or put a charger on it overnight and the next morning it would fire up no issue. It might run fine for a week or you could drive it around the block shut it off and act like the battery was dead again. Replaced the battery and my son thought the voltage regulator was dead. He replaced it and the issue continued. Then the day came when none of the lights would work either. I finally brought it to a shop and they diagnosed the voltage regulator not being properly grounded as the issue - and the ungrounded regulator had fried all the light bulbs. They checked the alternator after bolting down the regulator and said everything appeared to be charging and working as it should. They simply bolted the voltage regulator tightly to the fender and replaced all the bulbs (I hated hearing I had paid someone to change light bulbs). I though OK, the old regulator was bad, and because it wasn't grounded the new one didn't work correctly.
The truck was driven very little the couple months as no one trusted it to go anywhere. When the other two pickups went down the 84 was needed. First couple of days it ran fine - then it was finally driven at night - next morning it was back to the battery acting completely dead. First time you turn the key you get a click from the solenoid then nothing after that. Left one son stranded in the morning when he got up to go to work - apparently he got mad and twisted the key extra hard and broke the actuator.
Couple days later I replaced the actuator installed another battery from a tractor and it fired right up. Drove it across town with the lights on (about 10 blocks or 5 minutes of driving). The amp meter stayed dead center (working?) did not indicate decharge. Shut it off to fill with gas so I could get home. Jumped in and the solenoid clicked once and then nothing. Had my son run by and tried to jump start it - his little battery and light duty cables only got the solenoid to grind but not engage the starter. Pushed the truck to parking stall and cursed it for a while then took my ride home. Last night I tried to jump start it with my car (1000 cold cranking amps, new battery and heavy duty jumper cables) the solenoid would only grind. Left the jumper cables on with the car charging the battery for about 20 minutes then it did just barely start - drove it home and put a trickle charger on it. While my car was charging the pickup battery I didn't get any messages from the car's computer system warning decharging battery or other diagnostic issues.
What would cause this? I would have said a grounding issue but the battery appears to be actually dead - even after just a few minutes of use. It does it on multiple batteries (3 or 4 so far) otherwise I would have thought a battery with a short. It seems to happen more often after using the lights but I can't see the lights draining a battery in a few minutes just going across town (small town). The headlights are new and appear normal when used - not extra bright or dim (part of the many bulbs replaced by the shop) or I'd think electrical short - and any electrical short that could drain a battery that fast I would think would also cause a fire. The few times it has had voltage checked with a multimeter is shows charging at 14+ volts.
Today its getting a new good voltage regulator (son admitted he bought the absolute cheapest one he could find) - and new heavy duty battery cables - ground and positive.
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