Bear with me if you can stand it... The patient: '96 2500 auto. with Cummins, 18K mi. On a couple occassions I have trouble starting the truck. Has two brand new batteries (group 27, 750 cca) from Sears. This is happening after sitting overnight or during the day at work, with the temperature in the teens or a little lower. I use a block <br>heater at home, or crank the inlet heater a couple times at work. When I turn the starter, I will get about 6 -8 turns, then, if I don't get a start, I'm dead. I have screwed up a couple times by not holding the starter long enough for a full turn-over, then not getting enough cranking to start it after that and needing a jump. This morning, with about 8 deg F, block heater in all night, I could only get about 1.5-2 <br>revs/sec, and it would not turn over. I hooked it up to my trusty Volvo and got the engine to turn, but not start. That's the first time the engine would not start on me with plenty of turns from the batt. I think I have a ground and that's training my batt. or possibly the Gen? After my last jump (from a Ford :-(), I noticed the batt charging at about 14-15 volts, which I think is normal anyway. I am trickle charging it tonight, then will check the volt. and monitor everytime I <br>shut down. This does not seem right for this manly vehicle to need jumped from my friends' wimpy Toyota in the cold weather just because it sat for 8-10 hours. Gonna have to take to the dealer unless someone has a good idea before Tues. I don't like the dealer! Btw, when I shut down, there is no problem starting up again within a short time, so I have not really suspected the Gen.<br><br>Thanks,<br>Jim

 

How quick does it get enough charge to start when jumper cables are hooked up?<br>If fast, I'd say:<br>Check and verify all connections, there could be some corrosion some place. Jumper cable wouldn't do it of the batteries were down. It sounds like a connection is screwed up someplace and the jump gives it the litte extra it needs to overcome that bad connection.<br><br>Chris

 

I noticed I was getting excessive charge before I rebuilt the contacts on my stater. It sometimes would act like that in the cold aas well. Then it will come to a point where I just would get a click. I rebuilt the starter for $25 based on the info found in this site and all those problems have gone away.<br><br>rebuild kit: http://www.fostertruck.com/dodge/default.htm<br><br>Don Miller<br>97 2500 CTD #6, Scotty II, 3K springs, no muff.

 

It sounds like you are having a fuel problem. You might have a small leak somewhere and it is allowing air to get in . There is a rubber hose return line coming off the injector pump. it is behind it you might want to check it for rot. If it is still original then it is at least 7yrs old and it probably is rotted and letting air in

 

Clearly a battery drain, IMO. Check by disconnecting cables, measuring amps of drain. I saw another thread (on another board) about someone who traced a similar problem to the seat belt. There's something that drains about 1/2 amp, but is supposed to drop back to &lt;1/20 amp after the truck has been off awhile. If the timer goes bad, then it continues to drain at the higher rate.<br><br>Other possibilities include an alternator diode, etc, but if you don't want to go to the dealer you may have to do some trial and error disconnecting things.

 

There is a remote possibility you could have one or two bad batteries. Been there seen that before, even with new stuff. One will go bad and drain the other one. Go to somewhere like Advance or a place that has a good battery load checker. Very carefully unhook the cable between the two batetries and test them individually.<br>Just a thought.

 

Hey Guys...<br><br>Thanks for all the great suggestions! Great board you have here. Turns out DieselDude hit the nail on the head; one of my brand new batteries was a dud. FYI, it was only showing 9 volts after running a charging cycle on it, so I took both batteries out and trickle charged the 9v overnight. The next day - still 9v. Sears confirmed and replaced the battery. The truck (and Burgher) are happy again. At least that didn't cost me anything. Anything else, and I was going to start bleeding money, I'm sure.<br><br>Cheers,<br>-Burgher

 

Yeah that guy DieselDude is one fart smeller...I mean smart feller. ;D

 

Glad to hear everything is worked out. My 95 did the same thing, about drove me crazy till I figured it out. I only buy NAPA batteries anymore.

 

Sounds like a batt issue to me, I had the same problem in my Impala after a run-in with an overly large pot hole. The impact damaged some of the plates in the battery and caused me to have to jump it EVERY time I wanted to start it... it sucked!<br><br>Battery tests somehow didnt find any problems but as soon as I replaced the battery, everything was fine<br><br>and yes, I had checked all connections<br><br>as for my dodge, never a single starting problem... fired up yesterday with only one crank at the blazing hot temp of 9 degrees

 

My son's 94 did the same thing. One battery checked bad and the other one showed that it needed charging before it could be tested. Since both batteries were in the truck when we bought it used, both were replaced with Advance Titanium batteries. No more problem.<br>Like one post said, take them to Advance Auto parts or another shop with a good load test on their battery checker. I have had Autozone tell me my battery was good when I knew it wasn't. I went right down the road to Advance and their checker verified my bad battery. I go straight to Advance now.