eyeteeth wrote:
Tested with a meter this morning. The battery is at 13v. Getting no power however. Dome light is off, no fuses are tripped... nothing comes on.
argh. Its like it's shorting out, but there's no smells, and all the breakers look good. But then, it comes back on...
Loose connection somewhere, probably on the ground side. Simply walking around inside can jiggle the connection back into contact, enough to make the low-ampere lights come on but not enough for the starter.
To test for a ground side fault, clamp one jumper cable to the SLI (engine) battery negative post and the other end of the cable to the engine block or starter mounting bolt. (Leave the other jumper cable loose.)
If you don't have a pair of jumper cables, you can use a wire and two alligator clips. Assuming a smaller wire (10 AWG or smaller), if the wire starts to smoke when you turn the ignition to the START position, you have a ground side fault.
In either case, if the starter tries to turn over, check your ground connections and wires, starting with the SLI battery's negative post to engine block.
(In my treatise on motorhome electrical systems, I used "connection" to refer to wires, terminals, nuts, bolts, and so on inclusively. In the paragraph immediately above, I've referred to wires and connections separately, with connection referring to just the terminals, nuts, bolts, and so forth at the ends of the wires.)
