Crewcab wont start

[Sharpe]

Well the other night I pulled into my driveway and turned the truck off to run inside and do something. When I cam back out it wouldnt start. It would make a fast paced clicking noise (maybe starter not fully engaging flexplate?) and the interior annoying beeping sound would stutter. The dome lights were also extremely dim and the volt gauge on the dash was reading around 9 volts. The windows would not roll up by themselves until I jumped it off Danny's truck, then the windows rolled up, but they were extremely slow and the interior lights were still really dim. I tried cranking it with the jumper cables hooked up and that did not help at all. I checked all my fuses and have been cleaning all the grounds I can find, but I have not fixed the problem yet. I'm thinking, ignition relay, starter solenoid, starter itself, or ignition lock cylinder. The not starting part seems like it would be easy enough to trace down but the interior lights dimming confuses me. So, any ideas?

PS. the truck is a 98 Chevy K3500 crewcab with Vortec 454.

[Sharpe]

Also, according to my voltmeter, my battery itself is fine, and the fuseblock in the engine compartment is getting full power.

[uglyota]

check your grounds
sounds like your battery's just weak and you guys need to buy a good set of jumper cables.
also check those stupid-ass screw-in battery terminals. better yet, cut them off and replace with some beefy top post clamps

[agjohn02]

bad cell in the battery

[fbronco86]

bad cell in the battery

Yeah I would try a load test on the batt and check the connections

[Sharpe]

Well I cleaned all the grounds I could find and took the starter to napa to get tested. The battery is a few years old and I've deffinately put it through hell, its a red top optima though. It has top post connections already. I have another red top that was in pigpen thats charging right now, I'm gonna try it later once its charged up. We tried jumping it off Danny's truck and that didnt help at all. Also, the voltmeter on the dash will usually show below 9 volts, but occasionaly it would go up to 12 or so. After I was done poking around with the test light, the positive terminal of the battery was really hot. The engine had not been cranking at all and the negative terminal was not hot so wtf is the deal with that?

[StevenAg03]

another vote for toasted battery...take it to napa and have it load tested...

[fbronco86]

Well I cleaned all the grounds I could find and took the starter to napa to get tested. The battery is a few years old and I've deffinately put it through hell, its a red top optima though. It has top post connections already. I have another red top that was in pigpen thats charging right now, I'm gonna try it later once its charged up. We tried jumping it off Danny's truck and that didnt help at all. Also, the voltmeter on the dash will usually show below 9 volts, but occasionaly it would go up to 12 or so. After I was done poking around with the test light, the positive terminal of the battery was really hot. The engine had not been cranking at all and the negative terminal was not hot so wtf is the deal with that?

Maybe your starter is a pos and pulling to many amps.

[DRAGOONRANCH]

x2 on the battery

[sasquatch]

steal one of dannys batteries and try it out. if it works, go get a new battery

[HULK-1]

Myne on my chevy has side terminals

[sasquatch]

what happened to the wally world one in the scout. you drain the **** out of it again?

[Sharpe]

The cables were too stubby to reach the terminals in the wally world yellow one. I'm gonna let a second optima I have charge overnight and try it out in the morning. I think my charger might not work though, cause its older than Grayson and I left it out in the rain a couple of times. I'll probably go get the original battery tested anyway though.

[junior88mj]

i would check the pos cable if its hot has bad connection or internal resistance it will read normal voltage with no load

[Sharpe]

Twas the battery afterall. I feel like an ass for wasting an entire day poking **** with a voltmeter and I even took the starter out just to end up replacing the damn battery. My optima was only 3 years old but I have used it prety hard so oh well.