I drove home for lunch yesterday and the truck was running a bit "odd". It got cold here yesterday so I figured it was just some choke issue. When I got back in the truck to go back to work though, I turned the key "on" and the heater blower came on for about 3 seconds then went off. Everything on the dash was dead. No headlights. Nothing. I went through a mental checklist: battery? alternator? lock cylinder? fuse? wiring?
Battery had 12.8 volts. Took it down to the store and had it tested. It was good. Hooked it to the charger and it showed it had full charge. So, I turned the key to "on" and turned on the headlights. Everything started working for 4 or 5 seconds then went dead again. I left everything in the "on" position and just started tugging on all the wires under the dash a little to see if it was maybe a short or broken wire. Nothing.
Got under the hood and started jiggling wires. Still nothing.
I tugged on the positive and negative battery cables where they attached to the solenoid and block respectively. Where the negative cable attached to the block I saw tiny sparks. What the heck? The bolt was really tight to the block. Definitely not a "bad connection". Jiggle it again, and more tiny little sparks. Then I looked and the headlights were on now. I pulled it apart and wire wheeled all the rust off the block and the thick washer and reassembled. It started right up and purred like a kitten.
So, just because something is well attached physically, doesn't mean it's well attached electrically. I'm sure none of that is news to anyone here, but I'm still learning.
