Ignition issue.

[Jotto82]

So last nihght I was messing with the tach wires. I found a power wire for the wipers so I just used that and then grounded it. This morning the truck is dead. Just clicks. I accidentally pulled the wiper power wire off wherever it was hooked. Wondering if that’s the issue. Like it was wired into the ignition. Or I left something turned on and the battery just went dead. Not really sure. Wipers run off a toggle switch. Any ideas would be great. I tried jumping it but I got nothing. Really confused...

[franken]

Charge the battery. Get a voltmeter and measure battery voltage to start.

[Jotto82]

Tried jumping the truck but nothing happens. The truck was clicking rapidly from the starter. Now it’s doing nothing. I NEVER had any issues before this. I am assuming the starter or solenoid is junk.

So close. I had to replace a tail light cover to make the truck legal for the street. Yesterday I got my temporary license plates and today I ran to get the tail light cover. Everything was finally legit. Now this. Grrr it never ends!!

[Axle]

Windshield wipers work on switched grounds. Power goes in, and low or high speed wire grounded gives you the desired speed.

Since yours is on a toggle, whoever did it may have bypassed the switched power to the wiper motor, and by hooking up your tack to it, you basically drained your battery by doing so. Check that there is no power with the truck "off". If your tach puts voltage to the tach wire when off, you may have friend the ignition coil by being constantly powered.

Alex.

[Jotto82]

I didnt leave any of it hooked up. I’m pretty sure the starter just went out.

[Dead Parrot]

If the battery was totally drained, it is quite possible the jumpers could not provide enough current by themselves. The clicking is symptomatic of not enough current capacity. Fully charge the battery or temporarily swap in a fully charged battery and try starting it.

[Jotto82]

I got this fixed. I bought a new battery because the one in it was 8 years old so time to replace it anyway. Still nothing. As I’m sitting looking there staring under the hood I see a wire going from the manifold to the frame. Wire was mangled so I looked up what it could be. I never heard of a ground strap before. I had an old negative battery cable from my 02 sportster before I cut it up and made a chopper. I bolted that cable on and it fired right up. Running like s champ again. Finally got to drive it. My son was soooo happy. Now it’s time to get the gas gauge going and figure out how to adjust my speedo so it reads properly. All in all it’s a good day!
M

[cadillac_al]

That ground strap shouldn't have kept it from starting. You must have another ground problem. Is your negative cable attached to the engine? If so you should double check that connection so you don't burn out a small body ground wire.

[Jotto82]

Originally Posted by cadillac_al

That ground strap shouldn't have kept it from starting. You must have another ground problem. Is your negative cable attached to the engine? If so you should double check that connection so you don't burn out a small body ground wire.

No negative terminal goes to frame

[Jotto82]

The wire they use was tiny

[hatzie]

Originally Posted by Jotto82

The wire they use was tiny

Tiny ain't gonna cut it.

The original Battery ground cable is around 4AWG and it ran directly from the negative post to the alternator bracket. This solidly grounded the engine. The stock ground straps from the block to the cab and maybe the frame are to provide power to the lighting and other relatively low current circuits in the cab. Those other circuits draw a heckuva lot less current than the starter so the straps are small gauge.

Without a good solid engine ground, the starter will not crank. The battery will not charge well either.

Whomever "cleaned up" the engine bay didn't finish the job properly.

Since the main battery ground cable is run to the frame now you need at least 4AWG equivalent ground strap from the frame rail to the block. Mine are run from the frame near the motor mounts to the block on both sides...

These will do the job.

https://www.delcity.net/store/Ground...id=38094426869

[Jotto82]

Originally Posted by hatzie

Tiny ain't gonna cut it.

The original Battery ground cable is around 4AWG and it ran directly from the negative post to the alternator bracket. This solidly grounded the engine. The stock ground straps from the block to the cab and maybe the frame are to provide power to the lighting and other relatively low current circuits in the cab. Those other circuits draw a heckuva lot less current than the starter so the straps are small gauge.

Without a good solid engine ground, the starter will not crank. The battery will not charge well either.

Whomever "cleaned up" the engine bay didn't finish the job properly.

Since the main battery ground cable is run to the frame now you need at least 4AWG equivalent ground strap from the frame rail to the block. Mine are run from the frame near the motor mounts to the block on both sides...

These will do the job.

https://www.delcity.net/store/Ground...id=38094426869

That’s what I did, I took an old negative battery terminal wire that pulled off my Harley when I chopped it. So the new ground strap is the same gauge as the negative terminal on the truck battery. The small wire was definitely overloaded. I attached a pic of it. I don’t know how well you can see it but the wire casing is melted and the wires themselves were cooked. If you think I should go bigger yet I will. This was what I had and my son has wanted to take the truck out for quite a while now.. pleased I got it figured out!

[nonstop]

So did you fix the negative cable from the battery? The negative cable should run directly to the engine. I like using 1/0 or thicker.

[Jotto82]

I didn’t. I missed that portion of your reply. Can I run it to the bolt on the manifold? Same bolt my ground strap is on? Or should I go back to the alternator bracket?

[hatzie]

Originally Posted by nonstop

So did you fix the negative cable from the battery? The negative cable should run directly to the engine. I like using 1/0 or thicker.

The Harley likely uses 4AWG battery cable. 4AWG should be sufficient.

He's not doing a factory correct restoration. Sounds like he ran a heavy ground from the frame rail to the block. That continues the ground current path from the battery cable that's already running to the frame. While it's not stock, it looks cleaner and should do the job adequately.

[Jotto82]

Originally Posted by hatzie

The Harley likely uses 4AWG battery cable. 4AWG should be sufficient.

He's not doing a factory correct restoration. Sounds like he ran a heavy ground from the frame rail to the block. That continues the ground current path from the battery cable that's already running to the frame. While it's not stock, it looks cleaner and should do the job adequately.

Correct. It’s a 4awg wire from engine to frame rail. I’ll take a picture after I’m done cleaning my barn

[Jotto82]

Ok so two pictures. One picture is the ground strap from manifold to frame rail and the other shows where the battery is grounded to the same frame rail. The ground from the battery is the one that is close to the red power wire and more towards the front of the truck. If I should reconfigure any of this it’s no big deal to do that. I just simply don’t know these things. Very grateful for this site and all the folks who help me get it right.

[hatzie]

Don't use the exhaust manifold bolt as a hookup point. That's bad mojo.
The copper will get brittle from thermal cycles. Dodge or a prior owner did that with the 360 engines in my 78 Power Wagon and my 85 Ramcharger. It doesn't last.

Place the ground lug under the nut and washer that's facing the block on the end of the alternator lower pivot bolt that you can see in the top right corner of the first picture. It should reach just fine and it's at least as good as the factory ground location.

[Jotto82]

Originally Posted by hatzie

Don't use the exhaust manifold bolt as a hookup point. That's bad mojo.
The copper will get brittle from thermal cycles. Dodge or a prior owner did that with the 360 engines in my 78 Power Wagon and my 85 Ramcharger. It doesn't last.

Place the ground lug under the nut and washer that's facing the block on the end of the alternator lower pivot bolt that you can see in the top right corner of the first picture. It should reach just fine and it's at least as good as the factory ground location.

I was wondering about the heat from that. I will move the wire. Hopefully today! Halo Easter 🐣

[nonstop]

Now seeing the photo, it doesn’t look as bad as I was imagining. I like going larger just for peace of mind (chased many ground issues before). Otherwise what you have should work fine. Agree though, definitely move it off the exhaust manifold.

Happy Easter to you too!

[Jotto82]

Originally Posted by nonstop

Now seeing the photo, it doesn’t look as bad as I was imagining. I like going larger just for peace of mind (chased many ground issues before). Otherwise what you have should work fine. Agree though, definitely move it off the exhaust manifold.

Happy Easter to you too!

I will move it to the alternator. That seemed like a better idea than a hot exhaust manifold.

[Jotto82]

I was going to move the ground wire up to the bolt on the alternator as suggested but me not thinking took the truck to run to my in-laws tongrab some leftovers we had forgotten. Things were a little warm unfmder the hood so I’ll swao it tomorrow hopefully. Feel like such a putz! Oh well, it will hold for now, just can’t forget to change it!