MrRusty

Couple of weeks ago I was driving my 1994 F150 all day, park it for couple of hours, then go start it... Nothing, no lights radio, nothing. Try to jump it with my other truck. Won't start, so i took the battery to O'reillys, they charged it and tested it.

The battery is from September 2010, but they said that it tested fine and holds charge. I come home, put battery in the truck, it fires right up.

OK, it has been fine and I have driven it plenty the last two weeks, maybe 300miles or so... Same thing happens today. It starts great, drives great. I park it, 10minutes later it wont start, try jumping it...nothing. I had to push start it...

Got it home, turned it off, then tried starting it, absolutely nothing!

Alternator has been replaced a year ago...

I also swapped in a gauge cluster from 1995 F150 with rpm gauge. My truck is 1994, could the cluster have anything to do with it?

I am thinking of putting the old cluster in, push starting it and if it was the cluster, alternator should charge the battery and once I shut it off it should start again....

Gimme your thoughts on this...

MrRusty

So I did some digging...

According to this thread; LINK --> http://www.olderfseries.net/forum/vi...hp?f=61&t=5273

92-93 have black bolts holding the trim ring onto the cluster
94-97 have gold bolts holding the trim ring onto the cluser

My truck is 94 but had black bolts holding the cluster, the cluster I got with tach had gold bolts holding the cluster... So now I am wondering if the cluster is the culprit of my issues...UGH

MrRusty

To add to this, all lights lighted up on both clusters, even the battery light and volt gauge functioned fine on both clusters...

From what I researched is that if you swap in wrong cluster the battery light wont illuminate when key is in "ON" position which is not the case with my truck...UGH

fordtrucknut

you should check out the battery cable, from the battery to the relay on the fender, down to the starter, also the ground wire,
fords used small gauge wire on the starting system for some reason, and they tend to turn to junk, my acted like yours did and i checked my wires like someone suggested, cut the wire open and it was corroded all the way from the battery to the relay, changed it out and it started fine.
now i'm running 2/0 wire for everything, and i barely get the key tuned before it fires right up.

MrRusty

I put in the old cluster back as a precaution... Then I take the battery to O'reillys and have them test it. They say battery is good and they suggest to get new battery terminals. New terminals are only $6 so can't hurt right? Got home installed new terminals, cleaned battery terminals with wire brush and guess what... Truck fired right up...

curtk69

last time i had problems like this it was the battery cable. it looked fine from the outside but once i started messing with it, i noticed the insulation was really brittle and after i broke an inch or two off i noticed it was corroded about 6 inches back into the cable under the inulation so i just replaced whole cable. then lights were bright and started like new again.