Odd electric problem in 94 chevy silverado

Maintenance/Repairs
,
1

I was at the grocery store in beautiful Butte, but when I tried to start my truck nothing happened! No noise, no lights came on, nada. I tried it a couple times with the same result. Then, for unknown reasons, I hit the headlight switch. Lights came on, and the truck started fine. It may be relevant that the needle on the oil pressure has been bouncing around (quickly, not related to pressure, I’m sure), and I recently replaced the thermostat because the temp had pegged out a couple times, but came down quickly on it’s own. Suggestions? Thanks! BTW, it’s cold here, but not that cold.

2

Somewhere inside the steering column jacket, the wires to those affected circuits may be getting a bit too intimate (touching each other in inappropriate ways). Using the wiring diagram as a guide (wire colors) follow the wires which go to the misbehaving components. The wires may have bare spots which have worn from rubbing on a steering column part.

3

Your truck has the side post battery doesn’t it?

Just for yuks and giggles, remove both battery terminals from the battery. Now take the red positive cable and peel back the red rubber protective cover from the terminal. If you find a white/green powder of corrosion under this cover, replace the cable.

Tester

4

Thanks for the response. When I had the (oh, forgot to mention this, didn’t I…)starter motor replaced a couple weeks ago, I had initially thought it was the battery, and they took out the battery, then said the starter motor was drawing too many volts (watts, something), and they put the battery back in after changing the starter. So…I’m assuming that they connected it correctly and wiped it off, etc. Wrong assumption?
Mike

5

It’s doubtful that they cleaned the battery cables. Tester is talking about corrosion forming under the plastic covering. You can get replacement battery cables at various places. I think Walmart has them. You can take the old battery cables off and take them with you. Auto parts stores have the cables, also.

6

I agree with Hellokit. Remove and clean both ends of every battery cable.