Hi, my kid power washed a 94 ranger and the truck has electrical issues.

He let it sit for 3 really hot days the first time and sure enough started right up.

Went back and had to get a ton of grime out of the drivers seat area and now NO POWER at ALL.

I checked all the fuses in the box next to the battery and under the steering wheel. Using a volt meter I was checking from the starter diode thing and sure enough the hazard lights pop on.

Gave her a go to start and the dash light up, all needles acutated, turned the key and once CLICK. All dark.

No power.

What should we do? Thank you, kindly.

 

Welcome to the forum

It's one of the larger battery cables, clean both ends and battery terminals
There is a positive battery cable that runs to a larger post on the starter relay on the inner fender, with battery negative cable unhooked!!!, remove all the wires on that post and clean them, then reattached, that post is the power distribution point for the whole vehicle, so very important wires there are clean

All the lights including head lights need maybe 20 amps of power
The starter motor needs 60amps!!!
So if one of the larger cables doesn't have a clean connection it can easily pass 20amps, but as soon as you try to draw 60amps, CLICK, no power at all

Same as a breaker blowing in your house, works fine up to 15amps, at 25amps "click" and no power, because it heated up from too many amps, cables can do the same, but no easy reset, lol, gotta clean them

And BOTH + and - need to pass that 60amps, its a circuit, a circle, if either cable can't pass the full 60amps then neither can

 

That's an amazingly competent answer. Gonna give it a shot. Thank you!

 

We're close... when the battery was connect and reconnect we got power back to the dash.

The terminals were cleaned with a wire brush.

The parking lights turned on. Gave her a go and just click. Then nothing.

Hooked up the battery tender. Powered back up.

Turned ignition. Click.

The exiting battery is tired but has recently been tendered, just a few days ago. It reads 12.6 on the volt meter.

Suggestions? Will it start when it is charged up?

 

No, it won't

You need to clean the OTHER end of the larger battery cables, at the starter motor(+) and engine(-)
Disconnect the cables at the battery end FIRST


If you apply extra volts(jump) to the battery cables and it still "clicks" then its not a voltage issue, its an amp issue, so a cable issue, because you are using the same cables to try and pass the 60amps
You could hook up 5 batteries to those same two cables and still get a "click" because its not a voltage issue


And while its a long shot from your description, its not a "no shot", starter motor could have died
One day they work and one day they don't, coincidence but happens
But the dash lights going out after the "click" wouldn't fit with bad starter motor, that fits with a bad or dirty cable end

 

Thank you Ron. Your advice worked great.

Intermittantly, he's got quite a bit of vibration at idle. Any suggestions?

I recommenced he put better gas in and the injector cleaner. We put in new plug and just changed the oil .The plug wires look quite new.

 

4cyl engines don't run that smooth under 1,000rpms, its the 180deg firing of the cylinders, V6 fires every 120deg so much smoother

But yes I would start with a tank of gas with some injector cleaner added, that WILL smooth out idle on any engine if injector tips were dirty, dirty tips drip fuel instead of spraying fuel at idle open times, so not a good air/fuel mix so you can get random misfires

Check PCV Valve, make sure its tight in its gasket/rubber ring, and if it hasn't been replaced in awhile replace it, replace every 3 oil changes, or 2 if you see lots of oil in its hose
Dirty PCV valve can act like a random Vacuum leak at idle, causing misfires