Electrical / Starting Problems

[GlocK]

Over the weekend I gave my 93 XLT a good vacuum and
steam cleaning so I disconnected my battery in order to
work on the vehicle with the all the doors open if need be.
Just after re-connecting the battery and trying to start
the truck I heard the starter tick a couple of times and it
finally caught. Yesterday when I was leaving the office
I tried starting the truck and it was totally dead. I left
the key in the accessory position and I saw the dash lights
start to flicker and fade occasionally. I would try and start
the truck and I would hear a few clicks and it went dead
again. I opened the hood up, checked the battery connections
and I got burned when I touched the positive connection, it
was very hot!! Right after I shut the hood I heard the chime
in the truck go off because the keys were in the ignition and
the door was open. The truck started without a problem.
The same hapened to me this morning, the truck finally started,
but it seemed like it had to build up a charge to get enough
juice to get the starter to turn.....anybody familiar with this
problem?? Could it be a bad cable or terminal?? The terminals
were clean.....any takers?? Thanks in advance....

 

[mabulok]

I had my battery go completely dead, without any warning. A bad battery will sometimes build up enough juice to start when it's left to sit a while. Yours sounds similar. Maybe check the charge on the battery with engine off, the voltage while running to see if it's trying to charge, all the connections...starter, ground...then get a new battery :mattmoon:

 

[TPLYNCH]

How old are the battery cables?? They are known to rot on the inside in first gen explorers. If the connection was hot, my thinking is the cable is bad.