My 93 ran great all day then when I went to leave my Womans house the battery was dead. It would hardly light the dome light. Jumped the truck and everything was fine volt meter came up to normal and drove home w/o a hitch. turned the truck off and same thing again. dome light is really dim and the grids will not even kick on. Is this a bad battery or a bad connection because it never showed any signs of going bad?
thanks
DM01

 

My guess is a bad battery. If you can, put it on charge overnight and see how it does in the morning. When my battery went south a few months ago it wouldn't kick the engine over even after charging all night - heck, I had to use two vehicles to get the dang thing jump started.

Even if it turns out to be the battery, I'd have the charging system checked to make sure it isn't overcharging (will kill a battery pretty quickly) or not charging at all.

 

Make sure you check the connections before you replace the battery. Especially the positive post seems to do this more. Clean them up till they're bright and then coat with grease. Get the special grease if possible but regular grease is OK.

Edwin

 

If it is one of the old type of serviceable batteries, make sure there is water in all the cells before you put it on the charger. I had problems with mine last winter, and it was just low on water, it's an old battery.
AJ

 

This probably isn't true in all instances but the 2 times that I had an alternator overcharging I could smell sulfur and the battery looked bowed out on the sides. It'll definately cook a battery into oblivion.

 

mine did the same thing and it was just a loose cable at teh pos side of the battery..

 

I tried the cables Heck I can't even move them w/o loosening them up. battry looks great. I'm going to send it in and have the charging system checked.
DM01

 

had the same thing happen to me 3 months ago. it turned out to be the battery. it doesn't quite get as cold in California compared to where you are, but it would barely light up my dome light, and it certainly would not power my grid heaters. Solution? bought a new interstate battery. wow! i could power a couple of 1st gen's now!

 

Normaly I do my own work but I let a shop do it this time. I told them to check over the truck and run some test to make sure everything was doing good. I figure with just under 200k its time for a good check up from the doctor.
DM01