Yesterday I went to work on tracking down the maybe-exhaust-maybe-misfire problem I've been having, only to discover that the battery appeared to be almost dead. (the gauge was reading low and it cranked for a few seconds and then only really slowly).

Tried to jump it-- no luck.

Decided to go ahead and follow Cruiser's tutorial for refreshing the grounds.
Cleaned up the connection at the oil dipstick stud.
Voila! cranked up perfectly with a great voltage reading on the gauge. Started it two times, just to make sure.

Came out to crank it this morning.
dead again.
cleaned, sanded, and tightened the following connections:
battery terminals, battery to starter, dipstick oil stud, and engine to chassis (however, i did not change the braided cable-- it looks like it's in good shape, and is the first thing on my to do list when i can drive to the autoparts store)

Still dead.
Repeated the clean, sand, tighten on all things two more times -- persistently dead.

The battery cables were replaced about 6 months ago, as was the cpu. The starter has been doing great. I replaced the crankshaft position sensor about a month ago, along with the ICM.

Anyone got any ideas before I resort to walking to the autoparts store to get something to replace that braided cable?

 

How old is your battery?

 

Check for electrial draws ? Battery must be charged up first ...

 

I have not checked the battery; I was assuming if it was a battery problem then it wouldn't have gotten so much better spontaneously after jumping it didn't work. (the gauge was well into the red after I jumped it and shot up to above average when it started about 10 minutes later).

Is this incorrect?

I'm assuming at this point that there's a short or weak link somewhere that I unintentionally tweaked when I was fiddling with cleaning stuff the first time. (as the thing I tweaked when it started had already been checked out/ renewed about a month ago).