He is correct. Take a volt meter (any ol meter will do).
Place the probes on the battery and read the VOLTS of the batt. with the truck OFF. You should read about 12.5 VOLTS. If lower than 12 stop......you found the issue.
If VOLTS are good so far continue............start the truck and recheck the batt. With the truck running, reprobe the batt. terminals. Now you should read 13.8 - 14.5 VOLTS. I would like to see your alt. make 14.0 - 14.5.....the higher the better (to an extent). If you read below 13.8, you alt. is weak and you need to STOP because you found the issue.
If you have now conf. that the batt. is good and so is the alt. now I want you to inspect connections. Make sure the terminals are tight. Try to spin the terminal on the post........if you can spin it STOP and tighen it. Some terminals get SO wore out that no matter how tight you make it it just won't tighen up so change your terminals.
If this is good as well, I want you to check the lead wire that goes FROM the terminal TO the starter. Alot of times the insulation around the wire starts to dry rought and acid seeps down inside the casing till it eats all the copper wire inside.......with less wire you now have MORE RESTRICTION and hard starts become common. REPLACE this wire (should be thick....like an 0 to 2 gauge).
IF THIS IS GOOD AS WELL........then I want you to disconnect your NEG. terminal from its post on the batt. Take a test light and attach the gator clip to the post and probe the to the terminal. You light should light up but it should be REAL DIM. IF the light is BRIGHT, you have something shorting out. If the light is REAL DIM or does not light up at all STOP but if its BRIGHT please read on...........with one of your buddies watching the bright light for you, go to your fuse box and pull out 1 fuse at a time till the light goes out or dim. This will single out WHAT is bleeding off your voltage thus draining your batt. Once you have singled out the accessory, you can start to find the problem.
Do these steps IN ORDER in order to find your electric problem........best of luck!
