Help! No crank no start

Hello all, new member here, just bought my Taco last October. 2010 model 4.0L.

Driving to church yesterday morning, my radio cut off, dash lights all came on and truck started idling very rough, almost jumping. Pulled over and it immediately shut off, and had no power as if there was no battery installed. I contacted my insurance company and had the truck towed back to my house.

Today I go out to work on it, have the battery tested, it showed 11.85 volts and after charging it tested bad. So I bought a new battery. Removed the alternator and had it tested, it failed 5 times. So I purchased a new alternator. I also replaced the positive cable all the way down to the starter. I now have power, but it will not crank. All dash and interior lights come on, but not even a click when I turn the key.

What else can I try?

 

Check the fuses, might have blown one doing repairs

 

Re check all your connections. Check that you have all the grounds hooked up.

 

I have found 3 ground wires, all look good

Are there more than 3?

 

Let's get a pic of wires connected to starter, then to alternator, then to battery.

 

And as Josh said, check fuses, particularly the big ones.

 

From what I can tell, fuses look good. The 140A Alt fuse is in tact (see picture)

 

I’m not 100% happy with the positive terminal, but it’s the best I had to work with locally today.

 

Your ground cable at the starter looks a little ‘raised’. When I replaced mine, I had to tighten the nut nearest the starter, insert cable, then tighten the top nut. There are two nuts on there.

 

If an automatic is it in park? Check that and cycle the shifter to make sure. I would get rid of that disconnect positive terminal. At least move that wire to one of the cable bolts. That knob is not made to clamp wire terminals. You loosen that to cut out the battery.As mentioned check all fuses with a test light not visually.

 

You really can not reliability tell the state of a fuse just by a visual look at them check with a meter or a test light because the fuse could have a cracked solder joint and look good when it is not also if it will not click it may be a different fuse that needs to be checked. Pull the cover and look at the listing on it

 

Yes, a fuse can open from age or stress and not a hard short. The stress open is hard to see visually sometimes. The hard short leaves molten fuse metal splattered inside the fuse and the fuse is usually dark inside but not always.

 

Can you take a look underneath that electrical tape on that negative cable near the battery too?

 

Yes, it’s corrosion free. I took it off and retaped it. There was corrosion on the positive terminal and slight corrosion on the positive cable, but nowhere else.

 

The bolt on the starter where the cable attaches is now severely loose... no bueno

 

After checking the battery connections as mentioned, check for a crank command on the little wire at the starter.

 

Is that a Quick-Disconnect I see above in one of the photos? I've been burned by those things bucu times.

 

Just tighten that nut and you should be alright. It probably loosened when you took the first nut off

 

This is not a ground cable. It is a hot wire from the battery.

 

The problem turned out to be the starter. The loose bolt I referred to in my post above could not be tightened because it’s internal, which was creating a short. Picked up a new one from NAPA today and I’m back to running again. Thanks for all the help and suggestions everyone!