Help with starting problem.

It was suggested I post here also to get best exposure so here it is.

Hi all. Just joined. Should have joined a long time ago. I was hoping to find help re 98 Tacoma with 2.7 losing all electrical intermittently. It runs fine but sometimes after it's parked I return to find it completely dead when I turn the key to start. No lights, no dash, no starter motor click. Nothing.The clutch interrupt is out of the picture and I bench tested the starter, which was fine. When thishappens Ifiddle with the key, the steering column lock, battery terminals, hammer to the starter, then for no known reason it comes back. Interestingly, When it does come back, my radio has lost all its programming. If anyone has any experience with this diabolical sorcery I would love to hear your thought. Thanks in advance for any ideas. Will.

 

Welcome to TW! Could be a bad ground.
Edit: Your radio typically will lose programming when you disconect and reconnect the battery so i'd start there. Check the main ground from the battery
Edit again: Just noticed you said no noise from starter motor, nevermind

 

How old is battery? Could have an intermittent bad cell in the battery.

 

It's old. I'm gonna switch with another car for a while and see what happens. I'm going to pick up a Power Prob III so if it happens again I can try to trace it.
Thanks for your help. Will.

 

I had this EXACT problem with my 98 4runner. Check the wiring harness that runs along the exhaust side of the motor, its clipped into the head with plastic pieces. If those plastic pieces break and the harness sags it gets real real close to the exhaust manifold and in my case it actually melted the wires and they were barely connected.

In my case it was because the jagoff I bought it from replaced the head gasket and never reattached the harness... melted a whole bunch of stuff..

 

Thanks for that info. I'll look closer.

 

No alarm.

 

I had the same problem and when I checked to battery terminals they felt tight, but I guess not right enough. I tightened them down pretty tight and the problem went away. Maybe check the battery terminals and see if they are not tight enough to make a good connection.

 

Another very good point, I had an Ford Econoline that had similar issue and even though the terminals felt tight on the ground by hand, electrically it was crap... fixed it with those metal caps you can buy from Napa to make the terminal fit tighter on the post

 

Clean terminals, tighten them. And check your grounds. I've seen this before with a bad engine block ground.

 

Thanks for the info. I had cleaned the terminal clamps an posts on both batteries I used when it first happened and the problem persisted so that's been eliminated. If it happens again I'm going to follow the fuse box test light suggestion to see what fuses are not powered.

 

you mentioning that the radio looses its programming, this points to a total power inturuption either a bad battery ground or a total power loss. If you have checked the grounds, there are 3 main fuses in the relay/fuse box in the engine compartment. There should be a wire, large diameter about the size of a pencil, that comes off the alternator and it goes into the relay box. This is bolted to a large metal fuse, should be 120amp fuse. look at it and check it for cracks/tightness. There are 2 other large fuses that feed the ignition switch AM1 and AM2 do the same for these. unplug and unbolt them and look at them. An electical check might not reveal a crack.

 

Glamisman, thank you for the info. I'll check it out. And thank you to all who have taken the time to provide suggestions .