Backstory: This past sunday I went to Chipotle to get lunch in the D2. After getting my food, I go back and put the key in. Dash lights up, but when I turn to crank position, there is no crank and everything goes dead. I check under the hood to see if the battery cable somehow fell off, but it is fine.

I did some quick googling on my phone, but found nothing. I then got out and hit lock on the fob. Doors locked. Hit unlock and they unlocked. I got in, and the truck started right up. Everything was fine through yesterday afternoon. Only thing of note was I got a pending P0340 as I was pulling into my neighborhood.

Present: Try to start the D2 this morning...everything is dead again. Key fob button presses have no response from the truck. I think battery is fine as it read 12.5V.

I noticed that after a couple attempts of turning the key, I took out the key and the ultragauge was on and attempting to scan. I then put the key in and went to pos. 2 and the dash lit. Tried to crank, and it gave a fraction of a crank, then everything went off/dead again. Subsequent attempts at key turning did nothing.

Anyone have ideas or experience with this phenomenon?

 

See what voltmeter shows for battery when you have lights on, if it is dropping low then battery dead cell. Battery terminals clean and tight. Follow negative wire to where it bonds to chassis and frame and that needs to be tight also.

Starter draws like 300 amps when engaged. So any crud on connections will make a big voltage drop. Ohms law; Volts = Amps X Resistance. So 1/100 of an ohm resistance will drop 3 volts to the starter.

If you want to eval your negative pathway, you can jump from negative battery to engine block or frame with a battery jumper cable.

 

Do as Buzz mentioned, but for an accurate battery test, you need the engine running, all the power on and you need a voltage between 13.6 and 14.4.
I this tests OK, do you have any fault code numbers? You may want to look into your ignition switch and all major battery and ground connections.

 

Sometimes you can find a fault by having head lights on ( a good load), and measuring volts from center of battery post to center of battery post, then repeating measurement between edges of the connectors. Any variation should be reason for cleaning. Since you can't get truck running you won't be able to get the 13.8, but you can work with the other voltage that is present to troubleshoot. If no hand held meter available, then clean terminals, and quit putting Irontite in the battery.

 

Thanks for the test tips guys! I'll try em out when I get home.

Mike: only code (other than the p0305 on startups) was the pending p0340

Lol c'mon nah

 

Battery older than three years?
Just replace it.
$110 at Walmart.

Clean contacts at battery with round wire brush over the posts and inside of the terminals.

Follow the thick black wire to the frame of the truck and make sure that that connection is not spoiled by corrosion.

Our battery on the 1997 D1 died - just like that.
Next day it was dead and the battery internally shorted.
It can happen. That battery was 4 years old.

 

So, the issue seemed to have been caused by loose terminal clamps coupled with the fact the terminals themselves were trapezoidal in shape.

Gave the clamps a squeeze with channel locks, tapped them onto the terminals, tightened em up, and the glory of electricity reentered my life.

Thanks for everyones help!

 

Great - now you can crank up the volume - and the truck!

 

Yep.
When I owned my D2 for a week - I had parked it at a hotel in Broomfield as I got a great deal on Priceline.

I went out to the truck on Saturday and no startie.

I did not even check the terminals.
I walked to Walmart - about 1/4 mile.
Bought a battery.

Pushed a shopping cart down a few parking lots to the rover.
Installed the battery.

But, when I grabbed the terminals and tried to twist them - they twisted.
Should have check this first!

And it works great to this day.
but, the old green Interstate battery was fine and is probably still
working well in the guy's car who paid me $27 for it on Craigslist.

Oh well.