No crank, no start

Tiny
LANA REDMOND
  • MEMBER
  • 1996 CHEVROLET 1500
  • 5.7L
  • V8
  • 2WD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 215,000 MILES
Hi, original owner of this truck, has been maintained - no issues ever aside basic maintenance. Went to leave work wouldn't start, jumped off another vehicle instantly. Following morning same issue except tried to jump from a jumper box (no cables) and nothing.

This is what I have done thus far:

New Battery (no change)
New Starter (no change)
Turned camshaft (turns fine)
New Starter Relay (sometimes it will make a slow to want to crank but sounds drained attempt and nothing)
Replaced Ignition Switch (no change)
Replaced Every Mini and Maxi in and out of car (no change)

Every start attempt has had a jumper box connected to it.
Tuesday, March 16th, 2021 AT 5:05 PM

7 Replies

Tiny
AL514
  • MECHANIC
  • 4,669 POSTS
Hello, it sounds like you have a parasitic drain on the battery over night. So you end up with a no crank situation everyday. There's a couple different ways to find a battery draw. Do you own a multimeter? I can talk you through the steps for testing.
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Tuesday, March 16th, 2021 AT 5:25 PM
Tiny
LANA REDMOND
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  • 4 POSTS
I do have a multimeter.
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Tuesday, March 16th, 2021 AT 6:33 PM
Tiny
AL514
  • MECHANIC
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Okay, good, the first thing you'll need to do is have the vehicle go to sleep. A lot of times it ends up being a module that is staying active for some reason, or some input into a module that will keep it awake or wake it up intermittently. So we're going to try both methods of finding a draw. I count 6 modules on the communication network. First if the hood for the truck has a little light up above for engine compartment. Discount it or take the bulb out. There may be a sensor also on the hood latch, so push the latch closed but keep the hood open for testing. Do this for the passenger side and driver side doors. This way with the hood open and the doors being open, you won't keep any modules awake, if you get what I'm saying. The doors need to open so you can get to any interior fuse panels. Next unplug any accessories if you have any and lock the truck. Leave it sitting for at least 45 minutes to an hour. This allows time for all the modules to go to sleep. You don't want any interior lights or anything on. After the time has passed, set your volt meter on 1 volt setting. And start going across the fuses one by one. Any fuse that reads a voltage drop has current flowing through it. Start with the module fuses and ECM type fuses. If you come across a fuse that has any reading, (it will be in millivolts), write the voltage measurement, the fuse rating and fuse label down. Do this to all fuse boxes in the truck and in the engine compartment. We'll try this first and see what you come up with. We can try another method next. I'm attaching all the wiring diagrams below, so you'll know what circuit you're testing. Let us know the results and we'll take it from there.
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Tuesday, March 16th, 2021 AT 8:16 PM
Tiny
LANA REDMOND
  • MEMBER
  • 4 POSTS
Tested all fuses at 0.
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Thursday, March 25th, 2021 AT 5:32 PM
Tiny
AL514
  • MECHANIC
  • 4,669 POSTS
Is the alternator putting anything out while it's running? From the alternator post to battery negative. Do you need to leave the jump box on it to run? Here is the charging system diagram. You should have power on the black/red wire and the brown wire, this is one of those systems that keeps 12 volts on both sides of the bulb circuit until the alternator stops charging, that grounds the brown wire and turns the bulb on. Also check that fusible link. They get corroded inside. There's actually a lot of charging and electrical system technical service bulletins on this truck.
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Friday, March 26th, 2021 AT 4:46 PM
Tiny
LANA REDMOND
  • MEMBER
  • 4 POSTS
We haven’t been able to start it in over a week, this includes having the jumper box on it. And there’s very little to any noise when trying to start it. The battery shows a charge of 12.5/12.6 this is without the charger on it going out the next day.
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Friday, March 26th, 2021 AT 6:57 PM
Tiny
AL514
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Have you checked the 2 wires going to the starter? The black wire should be power at all the time and the purple wire is power during cranking. That's a good reading on the battery. You may have a wiring issue, you're going to have to check down at the starter. If you can reach check for power on the 2 wires at the starter and the negative lead of your multimeter on battery negative.
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Saturday, March 27th, 2021 AT 8:30 AM

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