No electrical power?

[Eric P]

The other day I went out to start my '92 X, It clicked once then was dead, I mean no power what so ever. I put a jump to it, same thing, no power. After fiddle farting around with it for about a half Hour, it finally got power and started. The battery clamps were clean. It did this to me about 2 years ago too. Anyone else have this problem? Is there i breaker switch that controls all the power? TIA Eric

 

[Ru Dawg]

Have you checked the battery terminal voltage with a voltmeter yet? Almost sounds like a bad battery to me. If it wouldn't take a jump it could be the battery. When you were "fiddle farting around" were you jumping it? It may have just taken a while to charge up. Once the battery is completely dead, it should take a while to be able to provide enough cranking power, it at all.

 

[Dakota1358]

check the battery cables could be a bad ground

 

[Eric P]

Battery is fully charged, Had it checked at Autozone, and all the connections are clean. when I put the jump to it there was still no movement in the gauges. I even pulled the cables off my battery and hooked it direct to the jump battery and still nothing. Im baffled, thats why I wonder if there is a breaker somewhere that reset.

 

[JDraper]

With the symptoms you describe, I'd bet on corrosion inside the battery terminal/wire connection. Water gets in there and corrodes the crap out of the connection. It's been a common problem with the older Explorers. I had the problem in my old '92 also. It won't be visible, but if you put a multimeter on it and measure resistance from The battery end to the starter end (with the cable disconnected from the truck), I'll bet its well over 100 ohms.

 

[Eric P]

Just checked it with my DVOM and got a reading of 00.6

 

[jgilbs]

when starting:
many clicks=bad battery
one click=bad starter

 

[Eric P]

Its been starting fine since. Must be some sort of gremlin in the system. There wasnt even a spark from the battery terminal like there normally is when I disconnected the cable. nothing was drawing power. I even checked all the fuses under the hood.

 

[jgilbs]

check your ground connection. sounds like you have a bad ground if you are getting NO power, battery and + cables are good. this is a common problem on older explorers(but then again, what ISNT a "common" problem on older explorers?)

 

[Eric P]

Thanks guys. Guess its time to replace all the cables anyway.