97 Ranger acting like battery is dead...Bought battery 20 minutes ago.

[MPD280]

Drove 30 miles to work last night with no issues. Went to start truck this morning, truck acted like it was dead. Unable to jump engine off with booster pack and two different vehicles. Pulled battery and brought to WalMart. Battery had good voltage but no "ampere hours". Installed new battery. Exact same symptoms. Battery gauge shows very low to no movement when key turned on. Occasionally clicks. Door chime and radio are very low to unresponsive.
I did clean engine bay yesterday with simple green and low pressure water..
Any ideas? 30 miles is a long walk home.

ETA- 2.3 L 4 cyl. 140k miles.

 

[AgPete139]

First off, I don't trust Walmart batteries. But, that's beside the point.

Sometimes, a dead battery acts too much like a ground if you are using those jump points on the dead car. Remove the terminals, and connect the black negative jumper cable to the block and the red positive to the positive battery cable on your truck. Use the regular battery connections on the jumper vehicle. Try to crank it.

If you are sure that all connections were made and you checked the ground cable (from the battery to the chassis...this could be reason for the weak signal), I would check the starter solenoid relay.

If the engine won't crank/turn over with plenty of power, start there.

 

[MPD280]

I understand about the walmart batteries, but they have always done right by me.
I finally got some help and my buddy saw sparks coming from the pos cable when I tried to start it.. It was pretty corroded inside. 10 minutes of cleaning and it's good as new. Probably didn't need the battery, but I would have eventually. Thank you for the help!

 

[AgPete139]

Glad you found the bad cable. Happy driving!