truck wont turn over

[olred90]

i have an 88 ranger, 2.9, i went to start it the other day and when it started to turn over it made like a popping/cracking sound and shut off. kinda like a speaker thats going out. i didnt have any idiot lights. we had it jumping for a little while and it still wouldnt start. we unhooked the cable, jiggled some wires and the terminals and randomly turned the lights on and it started right up. i drove it to my buddies house 5 minutes away and shut it off. tried starting it and didnt have any lights. had it jumping for a little while and it still wouldnt start. sometimes id lose all power and sometimes id have lights. we tried jumping the solenoid and beating on the starter. my buddy put his duralast battery in it for about 20 minutes and it still wouldnt start. he put it back in his truck and now his truck wouldnt start. so what makes a truck not take a charge and drains batteries fast?

 

[Jspafford]

Sounds like you have a bad connection most likely at the battery itself. How do your terminals look? Corroded? How are the cables?

Don't look to far into it until you rule out the obvious stuff.

 

[C_Root]

Check your main ground cables to the block and to the frame with a volt meter, sounds like the exact same problem i had with an old vehicle. Best of Luck.
Croot

 

[olred90]

would bad terminals drain the battery? theyre not too bad, no corrosion, wires are kinda frayed. on another ranger i had it had a ground problem and i had absolutely no power, no lights or anything. on my truck now i still have lights.
ive been researching and talking to people, im hearing an alternator, solenoid, even a short in the starter. what about a voltage regulator?

 

['99 EB Explorer]

I'd put my money on a short somewhere. That noise you heard is what happens when the battery is dead. The noise is the starter doing what it can with the power that it has.

Go back in and find which wires you were wiggling to get the lights to come back on....then you'll have a starting point on where to look for the short.

 

[olred90]

i only heard that noise once. now all its doing is clicking like the battery is dead but wont charge

 

[TimR]

The Gen 1's, All of them, are notorious for ground cable problems. Inspect and clean EVERY connection, or better yet, order a new complete cable from Ford. I'd be willing to bet the problem will be solved!

 

[olred90]

problem is its sitting at my buddies house 25 minutes away from me, and im at school, 2 hours away from my house. do you think if i took a test light and went through all the wires i could find the bad one?

 

['99 EB Explorer]

Yep