Ok so I took my truck to my mechanic a few days ago to put in a new slave cylinder throwout bearing and flywheel, ok when I got my truck back I noticed that the battery was a little dead, well anyways so I got it cranked up and going, in hopes of charging the battery, Well as I didn't notice the mechanic broke my fender mounted solenoid without me knowing it so today I replaced it hoping that that was the issue for the system not charging, well obviously the alternator charge light would come on if the problem was the alternator but apparently it's not, the voltometer stays steady in the far right band not above normal but where it should be, than I cut my truck off for about 10 minutes and I can't crank the goddamn thing up, autozone said the battery was good no dead shorts or collapsed cells none of that ****, I'm getting really tired of push starting my 6000 lb mammoth everytime I want it to start.... Also everytime I turn the ignition to run the voltometer is dead near gooddamn 8 volts.. What the hell did they do to my truck?????

 

Do you have a multimeter? Check the voltage at the battery not running and at the battery running. The voltage at the battery should be around 12v without the truck on, and somewhere around 13-14v when it's running (alternator charging the battery). I was having a charging problem a few weeks back, and it ended up being a loose wire, so check the wires on your battery, on your solenoid, and on your alternator... also check to make sure your ground wires are clean and tight.

 

Autozones definition of a good battery is pretty broad. I've had quite dead batteries that they say are good. Test your alternator and ask Autozone what they are actually reading in amps. Also always check wires and connections. You could try a known good battery as well.

 

Ok so here's what happened last night, my battery was reading dead at -8 volts, then a few hours later like 3 hours later the battery actually cranked over???? Wth is going on?????

 

Did you say -8 as in NEGATIVE 8 volts? You must have had the leads backwards, if your battery was reading negative it wasn't just dead, it turned into a vampire battery. I had some trouble with my truck starting last night, just had to clean the battery terminals and cables a little.

 

I had the same problem. I finally traced it dn. to the starter! my truck would start rite up after sitting for a couple days, after i ran it for awhile it would start running like it was running off the Batt. What happens is the starter in its weak state will start draining the battery while its running.have yer starter tested.(Butin my opinion, if you get the starter off, you may as well get another anyway.) try that. if thats not it, time to check the Altenator, take the pos. cable off the batt. after starting, if it stays running yer alt. is good. if it dies, it's time to hit the pic-a-part up. P.S. just went thru all that this past couple weeks!!! Hope this helps

 

You wouldn't remove the positive, you would remove the negative. The logic being that electricity flows negative to positive, so if you remove the negative you remove the start/origin of the electricity.

http://m.wikihow.com/Check-an-Alternator

 

Also. If your battery can still build/hold a charge AND maintain its charge under load, then its still good. Even if the voltage and charge is good, if it can't hold a load its bad.

 

It was reading -8 on the trucks voltometer.. Imma try and put a new battery in it tonight..

 

Crazy. I second what weckta was saying about using a multimeter. But share if anything changes after swapping the battery.