One click and truck kills.

Hello everybody, I have a 2002 4runner, SR5 2WD, and recently I have been having a ground connection issue. At least thats what I suspect.I started my truck, drive about 10 feet, and it killed. I tried to start it again and it immediately killed the whole truck, lost all power. This has happened periodically in the last 6 months, but never while it was running. Sometimes I will go to crank my truck, and I will get one click and the whole truck will kill. I lose all power in the whole vehicle. Normally when this has happened before, i can disconnect my battery and reconnect it and it will crank. But now I cant get it to crank. Every time I reconnect the battery to try to start it, it just kills. I know the battery has juice, has its not even a 2 months old, and I've tried to get a jump, which also didn't work. Any suggestions? In a pinch.

 

Quite possible it's a ground problem. They can be sneaky, and really annoying. First thing is to FIND all your design ground points. Once you've done that, you should methodically go around and take each one off, scrub them down to bare, shiny metal, both sides. In other words, the cable where it touches the metal of the ground point, AND the metal of the ground point should be clean, no oil, dirt, crud, or corrosion. A good scrub with a wire brush usually will do the job, as long as any corrosion isn't too bad.
The battery cables will need cleaning as well. Not only the cables, but the posts of the battery itself will need cleaning. Get a "battery tool" from any auto part store for a dollar or so. It will have a circular, hollow, wire brush you can push down over the battery posts, spin a few time with a rotary motion, and the lead posts will be clean and shiny. Make sure any and all corrosion is removed. If there's a build up of acid residue, and the corrosion it causes, clean it off with some water and baking soda. A decent plastic brush will do very nicely. THEN hit the lead posts with the battery tool. Also, whatever is ON the posts will be cleaned with the other half of the battery tool. It will be a wire brush, tapered to fit a wide variety of holes. Again, a few twists, and voila, clean.
Check the wires themselves, especially the usual, open to the environment, bolted to the post connector type. The acid that the battery vents as it's charging will get inside the wire's insulation, and cause huge trouble. Flex each wire from it's end down away from the battery, looking for any sign of the continuity breaking down as you do. Any flickering lights, radio cutting on and off, and so forth. Alternatively, you can just say screw it, and chop a couple inches off the wires and cut back some insulation to make a fresh, clean connection. A hint to make those wires last longer: get yourself a few feet of meltwall heatshrink. Cut a few inches off for every wire that is hooked to the battery posts, and shrink the heatshrink down over it. It will help prevent anything getting down under the insulation. Also, crimp a ring terminal on every wire, and get yourself a pair of "marine terminals" for the battery. Put the heat shrink down the wire, crimp a ring terminal on, and slide the heatshrink down as far over the ring terminal as possible, and shrink it down, making sure the wall materiel melts out as you do. Marine terminals bolt down on a battery post like any normal lead terminal, but they have a screw post you can attach the ring terminals you crimp onto the wires to. Once all the wires are stacked on, screw a wing nut down onto them to hold them in place. A much easier, and cleaner, method of connecting a wire to a battery. BOTH terminals.
Follow the battery cables to their other ends, remove, and clean them thoroughly. Any wire connected to the body metal is a ground wire. They are ALL subject to corrosion. Pull them off, and clean them thoroughly.

Good luck to you!
Pat☺