electrical/power issues

[DroppedMitsu]

Ok my buddies 90 2.4 is having problems. The truck is wanting to act like it has no power when you go to start it, even though the battery is good and fully charged(even changed out the good battery in my truck). The thing is it will start perfectly fine if a battery charger or jumper cables are hooked up. The alternator output is checking out fine, and we changed out the semi corroded negative battery cable/ground. Anyone have any ideas or ne other grounds or nething that could be affecting things? Also when he got it started by jumping it and was driving over here it was running funny kinda like misfiring(not saying it was for sure misfiring, just seemed like it, like he power was quickly getting shut on andoff really quick) one sec then running fine the next, and his radio was turning on nd off by itself. Thanks for any help you can give!

[4doorciv]

Sounds like he might have a short or broken wire somewhere. Since the battery checks out, I'd say open wire. What else do you guys notice about the truck? Gauge cluster spasims for example. The way the radio and engine are connected are by the ignition switch. Did you try jumping the starter by a jumper wire from the battery directly to the starter signal? And check your positive battery terminal for corrosion or loosenes. That happened on my talon last week, pos cable vibrated loose. Lol.

[pennyman1]

Check the grounging cable the whole length from the battery to the body, frame, and block. All the attachment points will corrode and cause the problems you are seeing. In extreme cases, the motor will ground through the exhaust or the tranny and cause severe damage or even a fire.

[In2Deep]

Mine has done the same thing and it killed a couple batteries. Acts like it's dead but jumps right off and I can drive for a while cut it off and it have no power again. And while driving at night when my subs hit it would lose power. The lights would go completely out then come back on

[DroppedMitsu]

As I said in the first post we changes the whole ground from the neg cable down to the engine. But we got it fixed, turns out something was wrong wit alternator and he exchanged the batter for a new one and all is well. Thanks for the help

[4doorciv]

Glad you figured it out.