I am yet again bringing you a Head-gasket rebuild thread

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JoeW said:
From experience on other cars, if it just clicks when attempting to start, it's usually from the motor to the chassis or battery.
I've figured out volt drops by doing the following:
  1. Check voltage at the battery posts. As stated before, should be 12.5v or higher but regardless of what it is, this is your spec for the next check
  2. Check voltage at the cable itself. Compare to voltage from #1
  3. With your positive lead on the B+ post, put the negative lead on the fender ground bolt, then on the lifting hook on the head (or similar) The voltage should be the same or very very close to voltage at your posts from #1
My guess is it's the large guage main ground from the battery to the block is finger tight. On the cars I have seen with similar symptoms of interior lights/ accessories working but starter just clicks, it's been the block to battery or chassis ground. You probably at least had the firewall and block one off to do the head.
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Cheers!! Appreciate the info, I’ll give those a check,
As far as ground I did paint the lift hook on the head , maybe that’s effecting the ground. Just seems odd that I was starting and running fine now nothing... where is the large gauge main ground from the battery to block located?
 
The hook has no effect on grounding, it's just a place to check if your engine is in fact grounded. The negative battery cable to the block is under the intake manifold, should be a 14mm bolt.

Before you go and rebuild your starter or anything, was your truck having issues crankingbefore you pulled the head? Granted this was a big fat job, meaning you touched a lot of stuff, when new issues arise after repairs, the solutions are usually found by retracing the latest repair and finding something pinched, loose, or unplugged.
 
JoeW said:
The hook has no effect on grounding, it's just a place to check if your engine is in fact grounded. The negative battery cable to the block is under the intake manifold, should be a 14mm bolt.

Before you go and rebuild your starter or anything, was your truck having issues crankingbefore you pulled the head? Granted this was a big fat job, meaning you touched a lot of stuff, when new issues arise after repairs, the solutions are usually found by retracing the latest repair and finding something pinched, loose, or unplugged.
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Yes I’m 99 percent sure I got that but phat cable in there onto the intake manifold. Will go over and check everything today though with a fresh set of eyes.

It had some issues but nothing crazy just the normal having to bump the key a bunch sometimes... it’s happened in other cruisers in the past aswell
 
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Begging to open around 192ish Fahrenheit and fully open around 200 it looks like... this is a Toyota thermostat
 
Ok so left it to trickle charge this morning, Batt is reading 12.75 and so are all the ground... still no start and just a loud click then the dash dims...
 
JM74 said:
Ok so left it to trickle charge this morning, Batt is reading 12.75 and so are all the ground... still no start and just a loud click then the dash dims...
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12.7+ would indicate a full charge. A little low perhaps, but charged.
 
BILT4ME said:
12.7+ would indicate a full charge. A little low perhaps, but charged.
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Hmmm so odd then that it’s clicking... batt is charged... grounds all appear good. I’m I missing something simple here??
 
Does the voltage drop down when the 'click' is happening or does it stay at 12.7+ volts? If it's staying high, the starter isn't trying to run at all, a bad connection in the large cable powering it, or an issue with the starter contacts. If it's dropping to 10-11 volts and everything is going dim, your battery is no good or the starter/engine is locked up in some way.
 
sbman said:
Does the voltage drop down when the 'click' is happening or does it stay at 12.7+ volts? If it's staying high, the starter isn't trying to run at all, a bad connection in the large cable powering it, or an issue with the starter contacts. If it's dropping to 10-11 volts and everything is going dim, your battery is no good or the starter/engine is locked up in some way.
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When I turn the key to on position not start now the voltage meter is at 0 and all the dash lights are super dim

However my voltage meter has the batt at 12.7...
 
JM74 said:
When I turn the key to on position not start now the voltage meter is at 0 and all the dash lights are super dim

However my voltage meter has the batt at 12.7...
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Did you clean the battery connections before reassembly?

Maybe a loose cable in the fitting?

Still have a CEL at the ON key position?
 
BILT4ME said:
Did you clean the battery connections before reassembly?

Maybe a loose cable in the fitting?

Still have a CEL at the ON key position?
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I’ll double check the battery connections but they seem fine...

Yes still have a cel on the on key position...

Everything is so dim now on the dash and it just slowly comes to life..
 
JM74 said:
I’ll double check the battery connections but they seem fine...

Yes still have a cel on the on key position...

Everything is so dim now on the dash and it just slowly comes to life..
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Your battery is not holing a charge or there's a serious drain.

Hook up a multimeter between the positive cable and the battery post to check for drain. (disconnect the cable from the battery to test). Set it to amps to measure how many mA are being pulled.

Otherwise, the battery is shot from sitting so long and not being used.

If it's an AGM battery, they like to be maintained at a full charge 100% of the time. If it sat for a few months with being continuously charged, it may be dead.
 
BILT4ME said:
Your battery is not holing a charge or there's a serious drain.

Hook up a multimeter between the positive cable and the battery post to check for drain. (disconnect the cable from the battery to test). Set it to amps to measure how many mA are being pulled.

Otherwise, the battery is shot from sitting so long and not being used.

If it's an AGM battery, they like to be maintained at a full charge 100% of the time. If it sat for a few months with being continuously charged, it may be dead.
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Cheers I’ll test this now. The batt is old and sat for around 4 months in a un-heated garage
 
JM74 said:
Cheers I’ll test this now. The batt is old and sat for around 4 months in a un-heated garage
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If it was sitting directly on a concrete floor, it is definitely dead. If it was on a wood block, there's a chance is could be saved if it's a lead acid battery. Sitting batteries on concrete floors directly kills them. IDK why, I'm not a scientist, but I've seen it happen on the farm.
 
BILT4ME said:
If it was sitting directly on a concrete floor, it is definitely dead. If it was on a wood block, there's a chance is could be saved if it's a lead acid battery. Sitting batteries on concrete floors directly kills them. IDK why, I'm not a scientist, but I've seen it happen on the farm.
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Sitting on wood and in the battery tray...
 
Should be OK from that "insulation" to the concrete.
 
BILT4ME said:
Yeah, you've got a pretty good draw going on there. Key off? Doors closed? Overhead lights off? Radio / aftermarket stuff off?

How about an RS3000 "factory" alarm? Is it on there?
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Doors closed, except rear hAtch, I don’t think it has an alarms and no lights inside are on... radio turns on when the truck turns on
 
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