why does my truck turn off when i turn on the headlights?

[colbystephens]

ok, so this happened to me 4 times yesterday. this hasn't happened at all during the week and a half i've had my truck up and running. turned on my truck like normal, then hit the head lights and the truck shut down. after that, my ignition wouldn't do anything, the lights in the dash that usually come on briefly wouldn't and the starter solenoid wouldn't even click. i get out, jiggle the positive cable to the starter (which has a short in it, i know) and then start the truck up and it works fine including the lights! how are the lights linked up such that it would trigger the positive cable to fail, and how are they connected such that the injection pump cut-off solenoid is tripped? i don't understand the connection. i need to basically redo all of my battery wiring, which i think should fix the problem, but i just want to know why headlights would cause this problem.

 

[ryoken]

Probably that draw your hitting the system with for the headlights is enough to heat up and activate your short...

good battery cables and lugs are often overlooked.. Go big on cable and do em properly soldered and shrunk tubed and you'll get long, trouble-free life out of em...

 

[colbystephens]

i suppose that makes sense.

what are the lugs you're referring to? i'm not sure what would need soldering either. can you explain some more.

 

[ryoken]

All battery cable to lug connections should be soldered.. these are battery lugs. you can either drop a preformed solder pellet in the lug and heat it

or you can just heat the lug, add spooled solder, melt, stick cable in... then run shrink tube over the joint...

crimp style or worse, clamp style cables don't come close to soldered...

 

[colbystephens]

hmmm. interesting. i'll look into that. i jus put a new set of the clamp on type in there - but that's no major loss.

 

[ryoken]

yup, just get yourself one of those blue propane or mapp gas torches and go to town.... It's simple...

Any decent size wire can really benifit from it... Especially your cables down at the starter... I don't solder 12g and up wire, I just use good shrinkable crimp connectors, not that cheesy hard plastic crap that leads to green, corroded connections in a year..

 

[theperfectgarage]

hmmm. interesting. i'll look into that. i jus put a new set of the clamp on type in there - but that's no major loss.

Hey Colby, little known fact, the bolt on battery ends are actually only supposed to be a temporary repair until you can get home and do it right. Old vert Dog is right on the money. Might be my old studio experiance, but ALL my connections ( no looking ) are soldered and heat shrink.
All wire is not created equal, do a search here and theres some great info on wire type, usage and quality.