General Technical & Electrical General technical and electrical discussion for the Ford Ranger that does not fit in any other sub-forum.

Help! Ranger has no power

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Old Apr 15, 2007
  #1  
Grizzlybear34's Avatar
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From: Bradenton, Florida
Help! Ranger has no power

Last night, my son called me from his gf house to say his 97, 2.3 wouldn't start. Of course I love to be called at 11:40pm to drive 20 minutes one way so I sprung out of bed to give him a jump.

After hooking him up to my ranger, nothing, no dome light, no click click, nothing. I checked the water level in the battery and it was a littl low but not dry. Added a little water, when he got in, the dome light was on. He cranked, one revolution, completely dead again. We left it there, but before we left, I toughed the cables together to see if he had any spark in his battery or if he was completely dead. Plenty of spark.

I didn't have any tools with me and it was approaching 12:30am, so we're going back in a little bit to clean off his terminals and the battery cables.

He had gotten the oil changed earlier Saturday. Besides cleaning up the connection, is there possibly anything else that could have come loose(got bumped) that is causing this? I am hoping it is just the cables or another loose connection. It's 7:45am ET and I'm leaving in an hour, so any responses in the next hour would be helpful.

Jim
 
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Old Apr 15, 2007
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Grizzlybear34's Avatar
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From: Bradenton, Florida
Loose positve battery cable.
 
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Old Apr 15, 2007
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From: usa
that will do it...
 
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Old Apr 15, 2007
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lol so its fixed now im assuming?....
 
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Old Apr 15, 2007
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Yah, it's fixed. The terminal was actually good and snug, and clean. But, the battery had shifted on the platform as far front as possible. We bought this truck used last year, and after inspecting it, the battery platform is much larger than the base of the battery.

when we went to start it this morning, I remember moving the cables last night and getting some juice again inside the cab. I decided to manipulate the cables a little. When we got some juice again, I had my son crank, and the same thing, one rev and dead. I lifted the positive cable the lights came on inside the cab, he cranked and it fired up.

When we got it home, I cleaned the posts and the terminals. I shifted the battery to the rear of the base and then place a small block of wood in the remaining part of the base to keep it from shifting forward. Fired right up and is running fine again now.

Sometimes you feel kind of stupid, eh?
 
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