Ilikeoldfords

I am still right in there with Tom. Yesterday really sucked with -32 F and close to 30mph winds. This morning it was still about -25 with about a 10-15 mph wind. Supposed to warm up later this week though... :pray:

I think I am probably the closest to ya. The wife and I are thinking about taking a trip to Duluth in the next couple weekends. We just need to get out of this god forsaken land around Grand Forks here for a bit.

I am getting a hold of a battery load tester tomorrow. If something comes up to where I cant use it, I will definitely try that. Thanks Tom.

I agree with checking the carrier bearing. Could be possible U joints too. I think if you have a broken/cracked flexplate, you would definitely know about it.

This was one of the first things I had checked. I ohm tested everything while I wiggled the cables real good and never lost a connection anywhere. I will pull the batteries when it gets a bit warmer this week and make sure they have a good charge. Then I will load test them and see where we stand. Thanks all for the help. This has been driving me nuts.

This is just going by the gauge in the dash... I just unhooked one of the big cables going to the grids for now, dont really care if it throws a light. Before cranking the gauge shows 12 volts. It does crank very slowly at first. After it turns over about 3-4 times it wont crank anymore. With each crank, the voltmeter in the dash drops about an 1/4 of the gauge. When it gets to 0 volts, thats when it doesnt crank anymore. It does not matter if I cycle the grids or if I have them completely unhooked, it cranks over the same amount of times and stops. Because of that, I am leaning toward a starter problem but not going to throw one at it until I know for sure. I will load test the batteries at my store this week and get a hold of an amp clamp to test the starter draw. I am not concerned about the grids cycling then if others do as well. Whenever I test the starter draw, I will test the grid draw as well to make sure they aren't drawing to much. Hope this helps explain things..

I am going to get them load tested this week. Maybe one of them is shorted out. Thanks again so much for the help. If they check out I will start looking at replacing the starter. This wouldnt be so bad if this wasnt my only vehicle haha! Guess I will have to borrow a work truck for a couple days.

Any reason why you think mine would still want to come on? They come on like I dont even have the truck plugged in. I double checked that the block heater was still working. Radiator hoses are all nice and warm. Apart from actually measuring the amperage the starter is drawing, is there any other way you could tell you had a problem? I am very limited in what I can do outside right now. Thanks so much for the quick replies guys. Very much appreciated.

Hey all. I have been poking around different threads asking questions but I figured this is a big enough problem that I should start my own. Over the last month or so I have been having a problem with my batteries running dead in short amounts of time. I blamed it on the cold and put 2 brand new 850 CCA batteries in and changed out the alternator after having the light come on multiple times for it. I was having fuel gel issues and left it parked overnight (the block heater WAS plugged in) and came back the next day, batteries were to low to crank over. I know for a fact the block heater is working correctly, block stays nice and warm in the -30 weather we have. I checked for amperage drawing on the batteries when the truck is off and at most there is only a .15 amp draw. Not enough to bring 2 batteries down over night. Just sitting, both batteries showed about 12.4 volts. The other weird part is even plugged in all night, the grids still run every time. Should they run at all if the truck was plugged in? The only thing I can think of is either the grids are pulling way to much power, my starter is drawing to much power, or maybe I have a faulty battery. I am going to have the batteries load tested this week if I can get it to a shop. Please help!! Any suggestion is wanted. This is our only vehicle and I dont have the means to work on it right now because of the cold and no where to get it inside for free. :ahhh: :ahhh: :ahhh: :banghead: :banghead:

Ok. Without anything plugged in in the cab there is only .008 amps being drawn through the IOD fuse. I plugged my stuff back in (i.e. cell charger, radar detector, etc) and it came up to about .15 amps being drawn from the batteries. Not enough to bring them down over night I wouldnt think.

Is it normal for the IOD fuse to cause a pulsing like that? I pulled that fuse and the test light went dead. I will figure out exactly how much amperage is being drawn through that fuse.

Ok. I have a test light in between the cable and battery. I made sure there isn't anything plugged in to the cig lighter/power port and all doors are closed. The test light seems to be pulsing steadily. It's a pretty bright pulse but I have no idea what would cause that. It's about twice as fast as a turn signal pulse. I'm going to start pulling fuses until it stops.

I am pretty sure the heater is working but I'll check tomorrow after it has sat all night. But even if it wasn't working I should be able to cycle the grids more than twice before running the batteries dead I would think.

Bill is right. Not only do the ambient temps here in Grand Forks hover around -30 at night but there is almost always a 20-30 mph wind on top of that. Makes for dangerously low temps with the wind chill. i am ready for summer now and so is the old cummins..

Yep. 75hp is the most you want to go on a stock turbo. I would stick to something around 40-50hp. It will be nice power and nice mileage. I also agree with Hex though. You really need to solidify the weak points of the truck before getting to crazy with power add ons. Get the tranny/clutch and fuel system up to par and a good set of gauges. Then the fun comes.. Welcome to the forum by the way and if you wouldnt mind filling out your signature, it will help us help you.

I do have the truck plugged in anytime I am not driving. Thanks for that tip seth. Ill look into it. I am still going to check the amperage that the grids are drawing just to be sure.

Ok cool. I am going to get a hold of an amp clamp this weekend maybe and see what they are drawing. It might just be how cold it is out that is the problem. After I run the grids twice there is not enough juice to crank the truck over. 2 brand new 900 CCA batteries and a new alternator a couple weeks ago. Either the grids are drawing to much or I have a serious power draw while the truck is off, or its just to cold.

Exactly how much juice are the grid heaters supposed to draw? i am having a hard time keeping my truck charged and I am wondering if the grids are pulling the batteries down to much.

I'm right behind ya. The only difference is we are about 10* colder but about the same weather.

I think after market wheels with a larger offset is what really affects the steering and suspension. The amount of shear force that is put on the hubs, ball joints etc, from moving those tires out even an inch or 2 must be huge. I do run 315's on mine with a 2.5 in leveling kit but I still run the stock rims. This truck is still running on almost every stock part for the front steering and suspension at 215,000 miles and everything is still tight and in spec. I honestly dont believe the larger tires creates that much more stress as long as they are on the stock rims still.

I might have been misleading when I said they were EV1's. Just realized I think the pressure gauges I have are EVA's. Not sure though.

Im in the same boat as you mike. I would way rather have mechanical gauges all the way around. Every other gauge I have is mechanical. This is what I get for wanting all matching gauges I guess. It is supposed to warm up tomorrow so I will check it out then. I still cant believe my mechanical isspro fuel pressure gauge quit working already. I have always run a needle valve barely cracked since I put the gauge in.

I have heard of way more people having to replace gauges/senders when using glow shift than people that are happy with them. I went with isspro right off the bat and would highly recommend going with some good mechanical gauges. Never have to worry about wiring issues or wondering if that little electronic sending unit is working correctly.

There is a truck race group that tours around the country and I know in all 10 trucks they run detroit model 92 2 strokes. They sound pretty crazy going around the track. They also use air starters and that sounds pretty mean too. I am not sure why they use 2 strokes for racing but it must be for the rpms.

Thanks for the info. Kind of upset because isspro is supposed to be some of the better gauges. Oh well, gonna try to get them warrantied out.