Topic: possible ignition problems?

[lifted_drifter]

coming home from work today try and start my truck and absolutely nothing happens. try it a couple more times and no luck. the battery seems to be just fine but the lights and starter will not engage, so we go ahead and jump the truck it starts right up. after driving it home i checked the battery with my multimeter and it reads 12.5 volts. so i go to try and start the truck up again and everything works fine up until the point of trying to engage the starter. all i get is a click then i lose my odometer and all dash guages and no matter what i do nothing comes back until i pull the terminal of the battery off then put it back on and the same thing happens. I have no idea what to make of it and cannot find a similar problem happening to anyone else.

could it possibly be a bad ignition? or any advice on what it is or where to start looking?

truck is a 99 tacoma v6 5spd

any help is appreciated and thanks in advance!

[Cheesemaker]

Ok, the best thing to do, is get it running.  Jump it or push it.  Get your volt/ohm meter out and see what the volts are with it running.  It should be around 14.2 volts.  A fully charged battery with engine off should be between 12.5 and 13.5 volts.  Get somebody to try to turn it over and while that is going on, see what the volts are when trying to start.  If the volts drops off big time, then you either have a bad battery or bad alternator. 

Another thing I thought of.  Is there corrosion on the battery?  Check to see what the volts are between the terminal on the starter and battery.  Any corrosion will significantly reduce the volts/amps to the starter.

[79coyotefrg]

sounds like a dead short in the starter relay.  removing the battery cable releases the tripped relay.

thats my opinion anyway

[lifted_drifter [OP]]

okay so messing around with it again today. brought out  my ford and jumped it and everything started up perfect as can be. running 14.3 volts while on. i do not get any type of sharp voltage drop when trying to start the truck at all. I dont know if i am corretly checking between the battery and the terminal (bolt?) on the starter but i am getting absolutely no reading as well. also after starting the truck by jumping it and letting it idle for a while after turning it off then trying it again i have no dash gauges, dummy lights, odometer, nothing at all when the key is in, no beeps no raidio. so i tried removing the battery cable and replacing it, and still the same result. another thing i noticed while putting back the battery cable is that there is no crackle or spark, or any normal little elecrical sound while replacing the cable. I think I might be dealing with a short somewhere else? the only other thing i can think of is that it has something to do with an alarm the truck had on it and has been since removed.

[lifted_drifter [OP]]

got it fixed!

thanks for the help on troubleshooting, ended up being part of the old alarm system in the ignition wires and bad main ground. they really picked the best spot right under the oil filter for it........