M1009 cucv electrical disaster

[fuzzpuss]

OK, this is what happened. I replaced the starter with a new one. I noticed that my main power cable was dangling close, but not OMG close, to the block so i pulled it a little farther away from the block as I had already planned on replacing it the following weekend. I am coming back from a trip at san luis obispo and was seeing how far I could go on a tank of fuel so I ran it out on purpose (620 miles on 31 gallons). Well after I dumped fuel in, I have the wife start cranking while I bleed the air out, I notice sparks from down by the starter. Holy crap stop cranking i yelled... I climb underneath and gee whiz that cable thought it would be a good time to rub thru and ground out on the block... i move it off the block and now it is only half as thick in that spot... I duct tape it get it fired up and drive home. I notice nothing odd after that. The next day I notice that my lights seem just bit dimmer... ok now what? i try to move my vehicle at noon and rrrr, rrrr... and not enough juice to turn it over. later I replace the starter line that fried but still barely any turn over of the starter. Check the battery and one battery bad. Replace that one and still barely any power to turn it over. I finally walked away from it for a few days then I start testing the other battery... both batteries good. I disconnect power take out starter try it while resting on the ground, it turns over, ok that seems to be good.I used the power cable to try and start it. I put it back up to the block and notice sparks when it touches the block.Shorted?? I'm not an electrician so I assume it has to ground somewhere as there is the main power and the solenoid hot wire...not big sparks just some slight ones. I try to start it again and nothing... What the frick now? I start to walk back in the house and with the KEY OFF it starts turning over by itself... i race to pull off the battery cables and Holy cow the sparks coming off the battery post and enormous, and wow that was weird!!! I noticed every time after that the secondary battery was sparking like a mother when I would try to put the cables back on. I now have replaced ignition switch, key cylinder, turn signal switch, battery cables, glow plug solenoid,some ground wires(that I could see got burnt) and have a gremlin that gives power at the headlights but no sealed beam will work and it looks like all my lights are burning EXTRA bright. I did determine that the starter was shorted as I have no sparks now with it off. What am I missing here?

 

[Warthog]

Have you ever heard of the Doghead relay upgrade? It replaces the "weak" starter relay with a heavy duty unit. That is why you truck tried to start itself.

Sounds like you now have some major electrical issues. Shorted out wires, bad starter and who knows what else.

Startr with the starter relay under the dash then recheck the starter and proceed one step at a time from there.

 

[fuzzpuss]

Update: Did the doghead, put the steering column back together, hook up the batteries and start it up. It starts with a clunk... normal from what everyone says, let it idle for 5 minutes shut it off. start it again, starts up fine. next day go out to start it and get the clunk but starter does nothing, now what?

I also wouldn't let it fry its self so I disconnected the battery the first night... just in case I missed something.

 

[ReubenJames]

Just had a similar issue..Took off the starter and had it tested and it checked out OK. Cleaned terminals on wires for main starter power and solenoid and cleaned some grounds and it fired right up. Also discovered that ignition swtich has a small fault and wouldn't throw power to the doghead unless it was turned all the forward to the stop in the start position not just turnd into the start position. Kinda of hard to explain. Hope this helps...Good Luck.