Gah!....Turn key....<click>
 

Batteries. They've been hard starting for the last month in the blistery cold 73* mornings in S.FL. Today, they are dead. Turn key, wait to start, put on seatbelt, turn to start...click. :yuck:

Hope I can find those Sears Platinums on sale. I think I might have just missed it![duhhh]

You did miss the most recent sale. It was 25 percent off each plus an additional 15dollars off if using online codes. Sears does have a 30 day price policy. If the product goes on sale within 30 days, bring in the receipt and they will adjust your purchase price to the sale price. They typically go on sale again at the end of December. That last sale was a good one and the next sale may not be the same.

Sears does have 2 coupon codes that should apply to an online order which can then be picked up at your local store. Use code SAVE50 to get $50 off of automotive orders. The other code is SEARS2013 which takes an additional $5 off.

Also wanted to inform you of the sears Friends and Family Sale. This should take 10 percent off the cost of the batteries. Here are the details of the sale. Hope this helps!

Sometimes you need a little motivation to get you through the last push of Christmas shopping. The December Family and Friends event is here to help beginning December 8th from 6 pm-9 pm or online December 7th from 8 pm CST to December 10th, 7 am CST. Get up to 15% many items to help you purchase those last minute gifts. These savings can help you add an extra present under that tree this year from Santa!

Shop your way members get an extra special bonus for this fall: qualifying purchases can earn members up to 3% in points, and if you use your Sears Card, up to 10% in points! What an incentive to shop this Family and Friends Event!

FAMILY & FRIENDS in-store Sunday, December 8th from 6p,-9pm and online at Sears.com: December 7th, 8pm CST to November 10th, 7am CST

Event details:

Get Up to 15% off on regular, sale and clearance purchases
Extra 15% off Regular, Sale and Clearance clothing for the family, lingerie and sleepwear, accessories, fine jewelry and watches, footwear, and Lands &lsquo;End shop in Sears.
Extra 10% off Regular, Sale and Clearance cosmetics and fragrances, bed and bath, window fashions, housewares, luggage and ready to assemble, mattresses, recliners, Shaw rug gallery, appliances, Floorcare, tools, automotive, game room and sporting goods, fitness, outdoor furniture and grills, seasonal, Lawn & Garden, Home Services and Parts Direct.
Extra 5% off Regular, Sale and Clearance Home Improvement installed services, Consumer electronics, TV&rsquo;s 40&rdquo; and larger, Toys available online only

Good call, I saw that on the link here: http://www.sears.com/diehard-platinu...4&AID=11042411

I need to get to it though, they expire today.


Just for the fun of it, I checked "compatibility" with the Sears popup thing as you select the item and put it in the cart. It says this battery isn't compatible with my 06 ram slt 2500 diesel??

The group 65 batteries are compatible with the 06 MY. The sears website is not the greatest. Please see my edited post above for the details on the Friends and family sale.

Awesome - thanks! :thumbsup:

Going to pick up the new batteries in a little bit. Cost $389 otd on the website. Looks like the F&F discounts you posted up there are in swing. The Save50 still applied too :)

Well, no dice. Installed the new batteries and still...nothing :yuck:

Guess I look at starters now.

I took it for granted the fix was likely the batteries as they had been lugging along on start up and they were due that I didn't do any troubleshooting for voltage. I feel like a goon for overlooking that.

9 out of 10 times on these trucks you are correct. I guess that pesky 1 out of 10 got you. :(

Tap the starter with a hammer and see what happens. You may have one fo the brushs that is hung up and not fallen all the way down.

Tapping on the starter is a good idea. However, you might want to have it tested at an auto parts store prior to shelling out for the cost of a new one. Be sure to clean all of the cable ends and grounds that you can locate as well. A new/rebuilt starter is not going to be cheap. You can also get a starter solenoid rebuild kit from Genos. They even offer a kit with an installation DVD to walk you through the process.

I will try tapping on it. Least it might indicate it is the problem if it starts after that.

I saw the plunger rebuild kit at Geno's so I'm looking at it instead of $130 minimum for a rebuilt unit. My starter that is on there now is a Denso unit from Japan. I hear they are robust units. So if I can keep it with a relatively easy & inexpensive rebuild, I'd like to do that.

Is getting the starter out of there a simple proposition? Or am I in for a treat?

I did not resistance test my cables while I had them unhooked. I'll pull them all again tomorrow and at least do that. The terminals were pretty corroded. I let them get out of hand as I got lazy. But I baking powdered them then sandpapered the inside of the clamps. I may have to replace the Pside negative clamp as it wouldn't tighten much on the battery post.

Now you tell us about the clamps... LOL. This is likely the problem. The corrosion issue as well as the negatives not clamping down on the new posts is a big issue with these trucks. Once corrosion gets on the cable ends, it tends to creep back under the rubber jacket and works it's way into the stranded cable, causing trouble. You can clean the ends until they sparkle, but I warn you that the corrosion may have migrated into the cable. Also, if the negatives are not clamping down and loose, this also contributes to the no start issue. I recommend you replace the cables as I had to do this on two of our company CTD'S as the cables were not long enough to retrofit new cable ends on and the corrosion had migrated into the wires.

:ugly:


If I got replacement cables, what gauge should I purchase?

Oh! And starter failures do occur occasionally on the third gens but cable corrosion and damaged ends cause much more trouble overall.

Get them at the dealer because they will have the thinner gauge grounds linked or branched into them. They are not outrageous in price. If I recall correctly, the negative cables were about 75 to 81 a piece. Very easy install.

Update:

Conducted the voltage drop test (Section 8F-20 in the manual) on all 4 posts and clamps & showed no voltage = 0.00. Conclusion: All battery-to-cable connections are good.

Next hooked up the Dside + post with the + lead and the - lead to the starter stud (as best as I could jam the probe in there under the rubber boot), then turned the key expecting a reading. The dang truck cranked! :o I released the key before it turned over, essentially performed a bump. Pulled the voltmeter leads. Tried the key again and the truck enthusiastically cranked over like nothing was wrong, albeit with a peppy rhythm likely due to the new batteries.

If you noticed the hook up, I said "post". I screwed it up (it was suppose to be on the clamp) and didn't realize it so I retrieved no information on the condition of the Dside + cable to the starter. But I wanted to tell someone in case it is a clue to why the truck didn't start with new batteries until I touched the +post to the starter stud through the voltmeter.

I'm going to actually try to get resistance numbers on the cables. It's kind of tough with one person and one hand and no alligator clips [redface] That's right folks. Gather round and watch Shorts' truck maintenance circus [laugh]

ETA: I'm not certain what to do now though since the truck starts. But obviously it wouldn't start so there was a problem somewhere. So, I have to find the reason eh? So, how do I keep from the truck turning on when I turn the key but still do the tests? The manual here says disconnect the fuel shut down solenoid :conf:

Chances are....either your cables or the ends are the issue......I'm kinda in that boat myself right now. Money ahead to just measure your cable lengths and go to a welding supply store and get the HEAVY gauge ground cables and then find your ends to put on them........wayyyy cheaper then buying factory cables!!! Now......maybe I should heed my own advice and do the same!!!!!:banging:

Update #2:

I resistance tested the cables using the Ohm/Resistance setting on my multimeter (I verified with Diode sound to confirm connection). I wasn't exactly certain which resistance range so I did them all (I just have my Japanese multimeter so I can't really read the instruction manual [laugh]). I also did not put a load on by turning the key. It was just straight probe and power from the multimeter. I got zeros for the entire range except for the upper and lower extreme settings of "200M" @ 1.0 and (Ohm)200 @ 00.2. Everything else in between was zero.

Fired the truck up for a spin. It cranks really quick now.

Still need to find the cause of why it didn't start though. Possible the starter plunger stuck?

Possible that it's the starter or a bad cable/wire connection.

Anyone know where the starter relay is? I looked in the PDC box and around the engine compartment but it wasn't obvious. I figure it and the starter motor are where I should look next.

The location of the relay is next to the drivers side battery tray, bolted to the fender. Just one relay on a bracket.

Slap me around and call me Susan. I think I got it. Searching around here for "starter relay" I ran across other no start threads. Turns out the yellow starter wire gets chaffed and shorts out on a bracket right above the starter. So I ran out and looked at mine, sure enough, chaffed. Perhaps it wasn't enough to blow the little 2amp fuse in the power box, but enough to interfere with start up.

Dr D. your words about the "bad wire/connection" finally clicked when I saw those threads. The truck started after I fiddled with the starter wire boot under there. I feel confident that moved the wires around enough that the yellow no longer shorted on the bracket.

Anyway, just got in from wrapping it up with electrical tape and putting new loom. Even zip tied them to keep them stable.

I feel pretty good I might have got the culprit of the no start. If not, you'll hear me griping about it soon [laugh]

Oh yeah, guess yall know which wire to tap for a secret kill switch now, eh? :D

You found it! I figured since it clicked and then started later on, it was related to a wire issue. The starter issue is not very common on third gens. Dodge had a hard time keeping cables in stock last year. They were on national back order for a while. I really did not want to recommend pulling the starter for a bench test until all other options were exhausted. Well done Shorts! Those batteries are nice, aren't they? Heavy buggers. Just think no more off gassing and cable corrosion problems and a great warranty as well.

Yeah, I'm feeling pretty good about it. Fingers crossed!

And the new batteries are nice. And heavy! It's nice they have a handle on top. The old ones didn't, talk about tricky [laugh] While I had the old batteries out I took some extra time to pull my Pside battery tray. A long while back I broke one of the air box support tabs when I was doing my home depot airbox mod. I bought a replacement tray and it had been sitting on my shelf since. I told myself I'd install when I replaced the batteries, so the day came.