wont start -need help

[jmsneorrcom]

1984 M1009 -driving on the highway when Gen1 light came on, tried to make it home and windshield wipers went out along with the headlights, pulled over and it would not start again.
Voltmeter says front battery is at 12.1 and back is at 12.9 -pulled the starter out and took it to autozone who said it was fine. I replaced the short positive battery wire becouse it was frayed and replaced the starter relay -I had already did dogheads modification a couple of months ago.
I can hear the relay click but the starter does not click or anything
any suggestions or thoughts would be helpful- I am a first time CUCV owner and am trying the best I can with it but my mechanical experience is limited -too many kids and too many jobs.
thanks

 

[doghead]

Charge your front battery, then have it load tested.

 

[Warthog]

Did you load test the front battery? Just because it is showing 12.1v doesn't mean it is good.

The front battery is what runs the truck. A few of the items are:

injector pump
headlights
wipers
everything except the starter (but is required for the starter)

 

[jmsneorrcom]

they are the original issue batterys, I was thinking about just replacing them. think this is a good idea? the way that I read the Wiki thread is they would just be normal batterys

 

[davidkroberts]

before you do that there was a post a few days ago about adding some epsom salt to a weak battery to bring it back to life. Ive never tried it but it would be a great time to try it now since you are probably going to be buying a battery anyway.

Ive used everything from Walmart batteries to cheap autozone brands and ive never had a problem. Try to get something around 700 cca rating but i think i have 600 cca's on mine now

 

[jmsneorrcom]

before you do that there was a post a few days ago about adding some epsom salt to a weak battery to bring it back to life. Ive never tried it but it would be a great time to try it now since you are probably going to be buying a battery anyway.

Ive used everything from Walmart batteries to cheap autozone brands and ive never had a problem. Try to get something around 700 cca rating but i think i have 600 cca's on mine now

good info - I will try that. thanks for the help

 

[WARWAG]

Just get rid of the OLD batteries. Your going to need to do it soon anyway so why wait until you stuck out in the middle of Timbucktoo before you do it? Get two identical batteries. Get the biggest AGM batteries you can afford. Sear "Platinum" Die Hard batteries are rebadged Odyssey batteries which are the best batteries made.

 

[davidkroberts]

Just get rid of the OLD batteries. Your going to need to do it soon anyway so why wait until you stuck out in the middle of Timbucktoo before you do it? Get two identical batteries.

where is your sense of adventure....... half the fun of military vehicles is wondering if its going to start. besides if it does work you have an emergency set of batteries. if it doesnt your out 30 cents worth of Epsom salt. This is a no lose situation IMHO

 

[50shooter]

Following with interest. I have two deuce batts. that were working great up until this winter. May have to try the Epsom salt thing too. I've got so darn many toys now that take batts. that I bought a load tester. Great investment.

The problem as you described it sounds alt / batt. related. Another option would be swap your civi batt for the front one and see if it helps at all...assuming your civi batt. isn't a 500CCA or similar. Batt swap takes 10 minutes and could identify the prob. w/out buying another batt set.

 

[50shooter]

Forgot to mention, one of my newly bad deuce batts shows 12.4 V until I hit it w/ the load tester then it drops to 7 or 8 w/in 5 seconds. That is after sitting on the charger for a day.

 

[doghead]

Here some info I randomly found googling battery and epsom salt.

Lead_Acid_Car_Battery_Repair

Sounds dangerous, messy and iffy.

 

[markg]

another thing to think about is that core prices for old batteries are very good right now. around 7 apiece . gather those old ones up and get enough dough for a down payment on an a couple of optima's