marine4life

Ok, heres the story. My truck was running pretty well, except for a small fuel pressure problem, but overall good. So it was 3:30am and i was driving to work going about 70mph, and all of a sudden there was a flicker of power. Power shut off for a split second then everything went back to normal. Kept driving down the road and suddenly everything went black. No power to anything and the engine shuts down. I didn't think that the engine required electrical but i guess the shutoff solenoid lost power closing off the fuel. I coasted to a stop on the side of the road and put it in park. Tried to turn the key, nothing. This is when i saw a flicker of light under the truck(oh crap fire). I jumped out and saw my starter on fire(from the combo of oil and diesel on it). I put it out, and popped the hood. I checked for anything burnt up there was no sign or smell of anything. Well i came back after work with a buddy and we took the starter off and tore it apart. There was no sign of it being the cause of this electrical short. We tried jumping it but the batteries arced when we put the cables on there(a short somewhere?). The starter worked fine when we bench tested it with an external battery, im at a loss at where to start. Has anyone had a smilar problems. I thought it would be wierd that both batteries were completely dead from a short. We tried a new battery and it arcs when we tried to put the cables on. Any help would be appreciated guys. I hate electrical and if i can't get this fixed in a decent amount of time im gonna part out the truck.

Partsman

About the only thing I can think of off the top of my head is your positive cable has rubbed the insulation off and grounding out.

boostjunkie1

Same here! I would look at all of your positive cabeling in the truck. For a new battery to be spitting like that you definatly have a short somewhere in the main portion of the Electrical/Distribution! Good Luck

Maine69charger

I would also suspect a problem with the positive cable, assuming it was a very strong arc, just a little spark could be just the memory of the radio or some other accessory. I think once you tear into it you will find the problem pretty easily.
All the electrical problems I have had with my truck have been very simple in nature.
Good luck!!

marine4life

thanks guys, i finally have time to look for it tomorrow. i will make sure i post what the problem was. thanx for the help guys.

Txwelder

I had a similar problem without the fire erruption like you had. Something shorted out and the two wires coming off the driver side battery to the heater grid relay had been shorting out. For some odd reason the relay itself, mounted on the fender on the driver side, had melted and the wires were touching just whatever they wanted. Truck was running fine then it was just dead, nothing. Got in there and replaced all battery connections and just disconected the wire for the grid relay. Truck still starts so Im not too worried about them.

marine4life

i finally found the problem. the main positive on the starter was grounding out on the case because the plastic that stopped the nut from touching the case wasn't there any more. I don't know where it went but nothing there. the reason it bench tested ok was because the nut wasn't on it when we tested it . i cut some fuel hose and spread it out, pushed it through the post and then screwed on the nut. everything works good know, except shorting it out took both my ac delco batteries with it(doh). sucks because they weren't cheap and they are only 8 months old. oh well, glad to have my truck back, thanx for the replies guys i appreciate the help.

Eskimo

replacement warranty on the batteries?