cerami50

Perhaps I'm confused about how electricity works, but after hooking up a DMM to my battery posts my truck reads ~15.5 off and ~3.5 with accessories on. Seems to me the voltage should stay the same but current draw would be vastly different. Issue started when I got in my truck and turned the key, all accessories worked fine, but nothing happened when turning all the way to ignition.

Symptoms: Turn key, nothing, starter won't turn over or click. Replaced starter, starter would click but not turn over, accessories work intermittently and with low power.

Troubleshooting: Switched relays. Replaced starter. Ran jumper cable from + battery to B+ post on starter, clicks but no turn over. Bridged B+ and S post with screwdriver, nothing, small sparks. Measured voltage at starter equals voltage at battery posts with accessories on (~3.5V).

While checking fuses, I noticed water on the bottom of the interior fuse box, though all fuses checked out good. I think it is seeping through the e-brake cable grommet as water runs down the engine side firewall. Therefore, I am guessing my only two remaining issues could be a short in the ignition switch or a short in my fuse box? It's a manual so no NSS.

Thanks,
Chris

freegdr

Thats clutch master leaking onto top of fuse box and running down. That will reak havoc on connections in the fuse box. Other issuue sounds like got a bad starter if direct 12 and it dont jump. Are you getting juice at small wire on starter when keys turned to start ?

cerami50

Thanks a lot for taking the time to reply, and for mentioning the back of the fuse panel beneath the clutch master. I never would have thought to look at that but it makes sense with the way water would flow over the drip rails. I ran a couple beads of RTV to hopefully redirect water in the future.

I also determined that there was a hairline crack in the top of one of my terminal clamps. I didn't notice it at first when I cleaned it during troubleshooting but found that every time I would turn the key, power would cut out, and I could bridge the crack with a screwdriver and power would return to the vehicle. Couldn't carry enough amperage to start, so in essence it was acting like a capacitor. And here I thought electricity followed the path of least resistance.