It's yer ground, silly

[pappy]

Thought I would share this. The problem started last spring on a vacation into the boonies of Baja.

Symptom 1. I have a digital volt meter on the dash. I noticed that instead of holding steady at 14.3-14.4 volts it was bouncing wildly between 12-17 volts. And I mean jumping all over the place. Then the problem would go away, and I wouldn't think about it.

Symptom 2. I pulled off in Yuma for fuel, and when I jumped back in the truck and turned the key there was nothing. Not a click. Nothing. Meter said 0 volts. Ummm. So I popped the hood, and grabbed the primary wire off the battery to the fuseable link and gave it a giggle. Nothing. I then grabbed the ground and heard the alarm chirp. Jumping back in the truck I had 12.? volts and it turned right over.

Out of sight, out of mind. Until yesterday I hadn't seen anything hinky on the meter, and the truck started fine. Until yesterday ... when the meter was jumping all over the place, again, and it wouldn't start in the Staples parking lot. Again, give the ground cable from the battery to the fender a giggle and the alarm chirps. Truck fired right up.

So, a quick stop at Autozone on the way home, new cable in hand, 5 minutes in the garage ... and once again life is good. The only thing I notice different is the starter is turning over much faster. I think that is a good thing.

Sometimes it's the simple stuff.

 

[KLF]

Which ground are you talking about? The one from the battery to the engine & body? Yeah, I replaced mine years ago, the factory one looked fine, but it was very corroded inside the jacket and at the crimped ends. Made a noticeable difference, especially when cranking. Replace the thick red one too, that goes down to the starter!

 

[pappy]

The cable from the battery to the fender was the offender. The cable at the back of the engine was replaced with the new engine last summer using one of these:

Golf Cart Battery Cable

Don't know the gauge of the factory wire, but this 6g cable seemed larger and worked great.

 

[raevenzero]

After numerous battery setup changes, I had one cable to the frame and a wire to the body. The frame connection broke without my knowledge. All was good until one cold day when the truck took longer to start... The relatively small wire (8ga iirc), caught fire.