No Electric Power

[unwired]

This is related to my thread about the "clacking" noise that I am trying to diagnose. Before I can continue with that I need to be able to start the ruck. I thought the battery was dead, no tail lights signal lights, horn, etc, with key in ON position. No activity from starter. Yes the kill switch is in the ON position and the brake handle is pulled in.

Anyway, I assumed it was the battery, bought a 4LBS Wal-Mart Battery, poured in the electrolite and charged it for 2 hours at 2 amps. Hooked it up and "edit profanity", same thing.

I went to Radio Shack and bought an inexpensive multi-meter, both the original battery and the Wal-Mart battery check in at 12.5v DC. A reasonable indication that the batteries are good.

It will kick start after numerous (I mean numerous attempts). But I can't diagnose the drive train issue once the kick starter is removed.

I am at a loss as to what to do next. There are no "clicks" when I press the start button. It is as dead as can be. Someone help this poor geezer get this on the right track.

[yaris]

check your fuses and the relays. did you hear a click when you turn the key to on?

no-a relay should be the problem

yes-check the fuses

take the multimeter and check if the battery wires are ok etc...

I can't help more.

[unwired]

Hehe while you were responding I was in the garage and checked the fuses one more time. The main fuse looked good but had slight (very slight) discoloration. So I checked it for continuity with the multi-tester - no go. I replaced it with the spare 20amp fuse and have fixed part of the problem.

Now both batteries result in lights (signal, tail, etc) but in both cases all I get is a short barump (maybe 1 sec) and clicks when I press teh start button. So still can't electric start but now I know the main fault of absolutely no power was the fuse.

So is the problem now likely the blue relay? Won't be able to get a new one until Monday

Thanks for all the help, I need it.

[unwired]

OK upon further review there is more to the story. When neither battery could start the Ruck, I wondered if they were actually fully charged. I went to Wal-Mart and purchased a 1.5 amp Schumacher auto shut off charger and cherged the OEM battery overnight. Installed it and still had clicks, lights and a slight "barump" noise that I now think is the sound of the starter attempting to engage.

So then I thought, what if the battery had been damaged by the previous charger? So I hooked it up to my Honda Civic battery (car was not running) and got the same result.

So I am now convinced that the battery is fine, but something after the power switch is the problem. Starter/alternator maybe? Starter relay?

Any ideas or advice will be much appreciated as I can't begin to tackle the more serious mechanical noise (variator, clutch or crankshaft) problem in my other thread until I can get electric starting to work.

Thanks for all your help.

[damon]

Hi unwired,
just wondering if you found out what the problem is as I think I am experiencing the same thing now myself.

[unwired]

Hi Damon:

In my case it turned out that the starter/alternator had gone bad. Replaced with a new one and it started fine. But alas I had the "other problem" in my related thread with bad main bearings. But the starter issue was clearly the starter/alternator. Once replaced it started without issue.

Typical multi-level problem though. Acted like a bad battery, turned into a bad fuse then a bad starter. So until I could rule out the fuse and the battery I couldn't find the starter problem. Most of the time the same symptoms are either the battery or fuse. But not in my case.

[adamwhy]

I've had a similar issue. At first I thought it was the wire harness grounding somewhere, replaced it. Still no power to anything. Then I figured it must be the ECU, nope. Finally I'm down to fuses and relays. The wire harness came with fuses but no relays so I was using the same stock relays from 2003. I wish I had seen this thread months ago. Still waiting on the last relay 'starter relay' to see if that's the problem. Fingers crossed. Will update tmro when new starter relay arrives. And good luck with your ruck bro.