[Musicman]

Originally Posted by Bandit102too

Musicman, My '06 387 did the same for a long time. It finally just wouldn't do anything when you turned the key to start. Threw a relay at it, didn't fix it. Put a button in next to the key, haven't had any trouble since. I'm thinking theres a busted wire or something somewhere, but don't know where. Did have the starter go bad back in May in the TA parking lot there at Wheeling, WV. They changed the starter and she didn't start again. Had to get it towed all the way to Eau Claire, PA and have the ECM replaced. What a coincidence, huh? Anyhow, the button still works fine!

Now THAT would tick me off.

With my '03, I'd had it into Peterbilt, which claimed they found loose cables. Couple days later, same problem occurred. I replaced the starter, and still had the same problem. Replaced the starter relay... still had the problem. Added an extra starter ground and still had the same problem. The only thing I never thought about was the playing with the ignition. Oh, I also replaced the batteries with Optima Yellow Tops and that made no difference. I learned that if I'd wait a little while, the truck would always eventually start. The problem only happened occasionally so it was just a minor annoyance.

When I bought my '06 387, I'd hoped I'd be leaving all the old gremlins behind, but that wasn't the case. I have some of the old ones and a few new ones now. This truck has the intermittent starting problem, although it only happens a few times a year. I have a few new problems that nobody can solve so I've given up on them.

I eventually quit sinking money into the problem and learned to live with it. I've learned to do that with most problems with the truck that aren't easily diagnosed because I think the so-called professionals are only guessing about what to fix and charging money to fix something that isn't broken.

[Passingtrucker]

You turn the key to start the engine, console lights up, yet zilch response from the starter motor, or you might hear a click-click noise. Besides checking battery connections, follow the ground black negative wire to ascertain connection is OK. Inspect for corrosion, which will restrict adequate flow of electrons to turn the starter motor. With a DIGITAL voltage meter, check the voltage reading; it should show at least 13 volts on a semi truck, which requires a series-connection or parallel-connection high amperage batteries. A semi truck produces intense vibration and shock as it travels, resulting in battery connections coming loose. All batteries should have a lock-down retainer to keep it from rocking back-n-forth as you travel. This rocking motion will lead to premature wear on the batteries. Some shops will purposely not secure the battery's lock-down retainer so the increased vibration and rocking motion means you'll be back for more battery issues and more revenue $$, to exploit your electrical and mechanical lack of knowledge.
Another battery issue I've run across is when one cell drains the other batteries. You pull into a truck stop or pickle park to shut down and crawl into the sleeper. 8 to 10 hours later, you turn the key, and starter motor fails to turn the engine over. Battery connections all seems OK, so you break out the digital multitester, set to "0-15" DC volts reading, remove the caps to expose the water mixed with 33% sulfuric acid mixture. connect digital meter's negative black probe to ground negative and red probe to top surface for battery acid solution, and you should get a voltage reading of 2.0 volts. Anything less may indicate one of the cells is not holding a charge and is draining the adjacent cells. A basic principle of DC batteries, when they're connected in series, one dead cell will drain adjacent battery cells until the voltage equalizes. But if this cell won't hold a charge, it continues to drain the other cells until all the batteries are dead. What's problematic about a cell that won't hold a charge, you hook up a battery charger, charge up the batteries until it reads 12+ volts, then everything seems OK. You run a load test to simulate draining the battery as the starter motor turns, and it passes a load test !! So you drive away from the shop, believing everything is OK, yet after parking the truck overnight, the battery is dead, AGAIN !! Don't go back to the same shop. A lot of truck mechanics are not aware a single dead cell is slowly draining all the batteries. To diagnose for this phenomenon, fully charge the battery until you have 12+ volts, remove the caps and measure voltage reading from each cell, wait maybe 45 minutes to an hour, then take another reading of each cell. The dead cell will show a significant drop in voltage since you last took a reading. So if you have 4 batteries connected in parallel, identify which battery has the defective cell, and replace that battery only. You don't need to buy 4 batteries, which is what most shops want you to do. [ATTACH=CONFIG]1313[/ATTACH]