C6500 Cat Diesel No Electric Power

barchetta · November 21, 2008

So I unfortunately own a 1998 GMC c6500 with a cat diesel. I bought it to move across country thinking Id sell it when I got there. Boy was I wrong.. no one wants a nice 115k miles truck.. anyhow.. its mainly parked in my driveway for the last year.. I use it once in awhile and move it once in awhile to get something in or out of my garage. The other day I started it up and drove down the road to park it and it died. No power at all when I went to start it.. no lights, nothing... I pulled the main fuse panel off.. messed with the fuses and found none blown.. went back in and it didnt start. Just when I was about to pull it back and park it with my DODGE truck.. ;) I tried it again and wham.. power.. it was cool out around 40.. so the glow plug light came on... I let it go off and started and let it idle for about 20 minutes. Later that day I started it back up and put it back in the drive.

2 days later.. its 35F out and I go to move it.. nothing.. no power at all.. no lights no fan no nothing.. I put a portable battery pack on it in case the batteries went dead.. nothing.. nothing on the volt meter either.. I heard a "click" when I first turn the key to ON.. NOT to start but to ON.. and then noticed no lights.. no glo plug lite etc..

Its fricken cold out now and getting dark.. I plugged the block heater in figuring this might be temperature related and I'll try again in the morning.. but does anyone have any clue what this might be? I really need to move this thing.. I have a freshly sandblasted trailer waiting to be put in my garage! I hope it does not rain or anything or I am screwed..

My first thought is to pull every single relay and clean them and use some grease on the connectors tomorrow.. But I dont even know where they all are.. Ive found 2 in the engine compartment thus far.. are there any under the dash?

Is this a common problem? Its gotta be a simple fix... I would think.. any help would be appreciated in preperation for tomorrow's fun.

thanks

Joe

Draenor · November 21, 2008

Check electrical connections and make sure the batteries are fully charged. How old are the batteries? The may not be able to put out the CCAs.

barchetta · November 21, 2008

Check electrical connections and make sure the batteries are fully charged. How old are the batteries? The may not be able to put out the CCAs.

I have a power pack on it and no juice.. nothing.. so its not the batteries.. something is not allowing current to flow at all.. I'll check connections of course but Im hoping someone has seen this.. maybe this truck is too big for this forum though... I was just looking and "heavy duty" apparently means one ton pickups.. I may have posted in the wrong place.. if anyone knows of a real heavy duty forum let me know.. I should say medium duty actually is what they call this group of truck.. y'all are light duty if you are 1 ton or less.. anyway.. this blows.