Help Ranger won't start,electricals dead

[jacksprat88]

Hello, my namres richard and I have a problem. I have an '02 GFord Ranger Edge 3.0L standard cab pick up. Yesterday I jumped in the cab went to crank her up and NADA....dead all the way around. No interior lights,l dash lights, no buzzer....DEAD. I got my buddy to jump her off with his Ford truck and still NADA. Although it did show signs of life by all the lights coming on, dash, interior,etc...but as soon as I switched the key on to start the truck, BLACK out. Then no signs of life again. I ended up pushing it down driveway to garage where i put her on a slow charge for an hour. I opened door and the interior light comes on , insert key and all the dash lights come on then turn to start and NADA...all black again. I roll the key back to neutral position then turn her clockwise again and no signs of life whatsoever...so i leave her on the charger again and 2 hours laterb try and nadas but now the 'anti theft' signal is blinking rapidly and when i try to start her a weird noise can be heard from under the hood. even with key off and out of the ignition 'anti-theft' light blinks rapidly. So today i go get an Optima yellow top battery to replace the Interstate battery and nada. I know the alt. is good cause I just had a new High output alt in stalled. I checked the volts on batt and she reads 12.80. My key is an original Ford key that came with the truck. I have lost 1 key and had a replacement made at Ace Hardware for 60 bucks cause its got a sensor and it worked fine till i lost it. But so i still have this ford key thats been working fine...can someone help with some ideas on whats up, thanks
ps- I have checked all the fuses (drivers side and under the hood). I just checked all wiriung again ands had battery unplugged for an hour. when i hooked it up all lights were on and I went to crank it up and as soon as i flipped the ignition switch ....powers gone. I'm sure its the PATS system. Can I take the key I have now(original) and get a duplicate made(60 bucks@ ace hardware) and use it to start the truck?? I know that's a broad statement cause a number of things could be wrong withe the PATS system not just the key going bad.

 

[RangerX]

Hey Richard, welcome to the forum.
I know nothing about PATS, so I searched the Ranger subforum for PATS and see lots of threads with somewhat similar problems, take a look: http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/search.php?searchid=8369972

 

[jacksprat88]

thanks anyway Bill that link is dead...

 

[kanuck15]

Pats only kills the fuel injection system. It will crank and crank but wont fire the injectors.

If you have lights/radio/heater/ect.... Then its alone in the starting system. Does it turn over at all?

 

[jacksprat88]

it does not turn over at all. I just hooked the battery back up and no power anywhere. No interior lights, no buzzer , no dash lights, no headlights, no life , dead. and my battery, Optima yellow top D34/78(purchased yesterday) reads 12.58 volts. I did a big 3 upgrade on the electrical over a year ago running 1/0 gauge from Alt.+ to Batt.+, grounded the battery to chassis, then grounded the block to the negative terminal on battery,ALL GROUNDING spots were sanded to pure shiny metal locked in with bolt an washer and lock washer and nut then coated with liquid electrical tape to protect from corrosion and moisture.I have a H.O. Alternator (225 amps), I do have a run of 1/0 gauge wire running from battery to a distribution block powering 2 amps. I have a 200 amp fuse block in-line to protect the electrical instead of a 200amp in-line fuse holder with fuse.This is powering a Rockford Fosgate T10001-bd constant power series amp for my subs(4 JL Audio 12w6-d4 subs in a sealed enclosure) and it splits off the block to power a power acoustic b5500-5 channel amp powering my front stage component speakers. I've tried flipping the breaker on the fuse block which would isolate's my whole audio system off. and still nothing. I've had my stereo upgrade and in-place for more than a year with no recent changes. I'm gonna re-check all my electrical connections to make sure there are no bare wires . I'll recheck the 1/0 gauge going through firewall to make sure its not worn through and no wire is exposed.I do have a ground loop isolator on the back of my kenwood kdc-52u head unit. I will check it. I installed this aftermarket system myself so I'm familiar with whats what. Both my amps are grounded to the frame with lugs and coated with liquid electrical tape to protect from corrosion and moisture...I'm gonna go now and re-double my efforts to see if I'm overlooking something...any other idea's on where to look?

 

[Tbars4]

..Breaking down your one huge sentence' into different paragraphs would make helping you so much easier and would probably get more responses..

..It's very possibly within the poss or negative cable and/or their connection..This is a short..

..Locating the short itself can be a pain but made a lot easier with another hand turning the ignition on when you need it and off when you holler..

..With the key held in the start position by another, start wiggling wires around the battery and starter relay..This is the general area which would normally have this fault..You will know you are close when you hear a click and the lights come on but this is the time to be really observant under the hood d your partner behind the wheel should be aware of the dash area and smell.

..If you smell any smoke or feel any real hot wires while doing this, turn the key off immediately..

..Ignition modules as well as a short in the steering column may be possible and something to look for but I would start under the hood..

..Another failure point is the starter itself that could give this same symptom..They will get a short inside and can actually melt it's cables while the key is on in the start position and I actually had one on an F250 that kept burning until I cut the battery cables..

 

[RangerX]

thanks anyway Bill that link is dead...

oops, sorry. It was just a link to my search results after entering "PATS" into the search box and selecting "Ranger/Mazda Forum" as the target search forum.

 

[kanuck15]

Did you replace the fuse on the side of the power distribution block?

I am sorry but your post is hard to read.

 

[jacksprat88]

sorry my thread is hard to follow. My English 101 professor in college agree's with with everyone here, I could use a little improvement when it comes to writing. So I'll keep this short. My truck runs.
I re-checked all connections and decided to go back to basics with the electrical. I removed the "Big 3 upgrade" and low and behold with each run of cable I removed more and more of the electrical system came back to life. Which is odd cause I installed the upgrade almost a year ago and I haven't had a problem. It might have been the cold weather we are having making the cables brittle.when I removed the positive connect from the alt. to the battery, the lights would come on in the cab, then i removed the negative ground to the chassis from battery and all the dash lights worked, finally removing the ground from the block to the chassis and she
turned over and now runs. I do have an 'airbag symbol' on the dash that's lit up. I'll check that out tomorrow....so that's it. Removing the Big 3 upgrade I did 1 year ago fixed it.I'm sure each 1 of the cables had a bad connection. thanks 4 everyone's input. peace

 

[RangerX]

Ah, good to hear!

So, maybe I'm a little naive, but what's a "big 3 upgrade"?

 

[jacksprat88]

Here's the link for the Big 3 upgrade http://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp~TID~73496~PN~1[/URL]

i figure I'll let ya read about it instead of explain it....lol