it seems like....

every time i try to keep the taco on the road and baby it has some kinda prob

and this one im not sure whats wrong

if i let it sit for a day or two it will turn over slowly and then just die (thank god its a manual transmission and i live on somewhat of a hill)

well today it did it and i got it started and drove it around town and back (around 2-3 miles) and when i got back home i parked it and tried to crank it a few times ,and it did, but right before the engine fired up it made a knocking sound then ran perfect so i turned it off and started again ,same thing and again and again,

it has a new starter, alternator, and battery (also the last time this happened i took the battery out and took it to auto-zone and they said it was dead so they charged it and they said nothing was wrong with it and this was on sept 15, 10

any thoughts
should i take the alt out and get it tested and if its not that then what else could it be?

 

it only dose it after a day or two of sitting

 

mine is getting slower and slower to start...almost didn't last night

i thought it was the battery too, and had it tested, come up fine

i saw that there was corosion on the batter terminal so i need to get that cleaned up, i hope that's the issue

any other thoughts?

are the starters known for being crappy on these motors?

my sister had to replace the starter on her 97 4runner 3.4L last year

 

Based on what you said, it seems like it would point to some type of drain on the battery.

Shorts (parasitic battery drain) are a pain to track down, but first thing you need to do is verify you have one. Easiest way I've found is to verify the amps with everything off/doors shut/key out. Get yourself a cheap multimeter that supports up to 10 amps (and put it on that setting). Most cheap multimeters have a different plug in for the 10amp setting. Disconnect your ground from the battery and touch one end of the meter to the cable and the other end to the battery.

It should read pretty low (actually, at the 10 amp setting, it shouldn't read anything). If it does read a value (even 0.5 is too much), you have something that is drawing power from the battery.

If it doesn't read anything, change the multimeter to the next lower (200m on mine) and try again. Dont forget that this setting might require you to move the red lead to a different plug in and would be fused (so dont overload it - 1A = 1000mA, so any reading on the 10A will blow the fuse at 200mA). With this setting, you should see something in the range of 20-50 (milliamps), which would be normal to keep power on things like clocks, ecu, radio settings, etc.

If you found you have a parasitic drain, the next step is tedious, but about the only way I know to do it. Try one fuse at a time until the amps drop to what they should. You can just hook up the battery again and bring the multimeter with you to put in place of the fuse you pull. Keep in mind that having your door open will increase your draw, so find a way to keep that door sensor pushed in. Once you find out what fuse is causing it, figure out what that fuse powers, get a wiring diagram and trace down wires, connectors, and items plugged in.

 

ya good idea...i'll start with cleaning up the battery terminals....and do the test while i'm at it

 

will the door being open still draw power even if the light inside is turned off?

 

I have a 76 FJ-40 and it did the same exact thing to me. Would crank fine one day then park it a couple days and would crank over really really slow and finally start. I replaced starter, alternator, battery, battery cables, etc. Finally read on a forum that I needed to check my engine ground wire and that fixed it!

I would suggest getting some jumper cables and putting one of the claps on the frame or a good grounding point and the other end somewhere on the block or starter bolt or somewhere that will make good contact with the engine. Now when I did this I had to move the clap on the engine around about 3 times until I found a good spot for it which was in the bolt that holds the starter on.

If you do this and your truck cranks over fine and stuff then you know it is a back ground so run a wire from something on the engine to the frame or somewhere to ground it out!

Good luck

 

where is the engine ground point??

after cleaning everything up the truck still starts slow in the morning

does someone have a diagram of all the ground points?

 

so i tested every fuse under the hood and dash and the only one that lit up was the dome light fuse

i pulled the fuse and let the truck sit for 2 days and got in it this morning and she fired up just fine

but now i have no radio, clock, dome light, and buzzer

so i ran a new wire to the dome light , radio and clock and then i tested the new line and the thing still light up



another thing when i put the tester on it the light on the tester lights up and pulses

^why?

i like to do my own work on my own vehicle and wiring dosnt bother me and i ussually understand things BUT.....this i cant figure out

 

Use the right tools for the job. A test light is not a replacement for a multimeter/ammeter.

 

update:

so i found out that the problem is coming from the radio so i run a single wire from the battery to the radio and it didn't work so i replaced the wiring harness for the radio and the one for the truck for a after market radio, didn't work so i thought it was somewhere in the ignition so i wire the red and yellow (both power wires) to the new wire i ran to the battery, didn't work so i thought it was the radio swapped it out with another, didn't work thought it could have been the CB (because its wired with the radio) i unhooked it and guess what..............didn't effing work, so the only thing i thought it could possibly be is the negative wire some how so i thought "why the hell not". i ran a new wire to the floor to the cab and it worked for about 4 days and i get in and go to crank it then...................................................somewhat dead battery (not enough juice to start the truck)


what else could it be?
what else could i do?

 

any ideas?

 

bump
i hate not having a radio