As some may know, I get tech calls daily from all over the country. I've been dealing with one for 3 weeks now that started with a buddy's friend with a no start condition. Hit the key to start, it would click the solenoid once, then lose all power. (bear in mind this is all on the phone) I tell them to start with the basics, find out where you lose power starting at the battery. Friend assures me that has been done but keeps going on about how crappy the harness is throughout. I tell him to ignore the harness until it can be proven to be an issue.
Rig gets moved from friend house to buddy's locale so he can work on it. He calls, I tell him the same thing. Start at the battery, find where power is lost, go from there. He starts in with the "harness is bad, blah blah blah and I can tell he and friend are mostly ignoring my advice. They go get an entire harness, it has to be re-pinned at some of the connectors, lengthened, shortened etc. 2 weeks go by and they finally have the "new" harness all installed, hit the key and exact same symptom exists. Hit the key to start, solenoid clicks once, loses all power to the vehicle. I make him take a test light, get it to a power on condition, hit the key to start lose power and then stop and start testing for power starting at the battery positive.
He finally listens and discovers that 6" away, the double terminal at the PDC from the battery has no power. Wiggle the cable, does it have power? Yes, no, yes, no. Okay, you have now found the problem. Turns out, typical battery cable repair with a soldered on terminal and the wire broke at the end of the solder where the stress riser is inside the insulation with enough strands touching to power on the rig but not enough of a connection to handle the starter amperage.
3 weeks, an entire new harness replacing the existing one, a new battery, and lots of time all easily avoided by two things, don't solder cables, and stick to the diagnostic basics.
Rig gets moved from friend house to buddy's locale so he can work on it. He calls, I tell him the same thing. Start at the battery, find where power is lost, go from there. He starts in with the "harness is bad, blah blah blah and I can tell he and friend are mostly ignoring my advice. They go get an entire harness, it has to be re-pinned at some of the connectors, lengthened, shortened etc. 2 weeks go by and they finally have the "new" harness all installed, hit the key and exact same symptom exists. Hit the key to start, solenoid clicks once, loses all power to the vehicle. I make him take a test light, get it to a power on condition, hit the key to start lose power and then stop and start testing for power starting at the battery positive.
He finally listens and discovers that 6" away, the double terminal at the PDC from the battery has no power. Wiggle the cable, does it have power? Yes, no, yes, no. Okay, you have now found the problem. Turns out, typical battery cable repair with a soldered on terminal and the wire broke at the end of the solder where the stress riser is inside the insulation with enough strands touching to power on the rig but not enough of a connection to handle the starter amperage.
3 weeks, an entire new harness replacing the existing one, a new battery, and lots of time all easily avoided by two things, don't solder cables, and stick to the diagnostic basics.
