We finally got the hood on my truck open last night and tried to jump start
it.  The truck hasn't been driven since March or April, and has a dead
battery.  At least, I thought that was the extent of the problem.

When we tried to jump start it, the engine wouldn't turn over.  I would turn
the igniton key and the truck would shake a bit, while the interior lights
would go completely dark.  The starter motor would make a noise like it was
starting to turn the engine over, not getting very far, and then not being
able to move it any farther.  My immediate thought was the clutch not
releasing, but I tried putting the truck into neutral and still had this
problem.  I stopped after four or five tries, not wanting to damage it
further.  The jumper cables were extremely hot a that point, so it must have
been sucking a lot of current.

Is my engine likely to be dead, or is there something else I should be trying
on this?  I have until Monday to get it out of the parking lot at my old
apartment.

19 responses total.

Sounds like stuck cylinders...

This afternoon I went with Steve to try to start the truck.  Why me?  Well,
I used to own it, and did a lot of my own work on it.  What I did was take
out the spark plugs and spray WD-40 into each cylinder, then we pushed it
rolling and let the clutch out while in top gear to get a lot of torque into
turning the engine over.  Hooked up the jumper cables, and it fired right up.
What a great engine Nissan put in that truck!  Months of sitting, and it runs
on the first crank.

  I was going to suggest the rolling start, but I thought the better of it
when I read of the motor not wanting to turn over. My dad was a big fan of
the rolling start. He usually could be found in cruddy vehicles.
  I'm glad it's working. 

Yes, thanks Scott!

I doubt that stuck cylinders was your problem.  If it had been stuck cylinders
the tires would have stopped turning the instant you let out the clutch.  More
likely is that there was too much resistance in your jumper cables.  Starters
draw a lot of current!  Like 100 amps or more.  Even .1 ohms of resistance
in the combination of both jumpers and their connections will drop 10 volts!
That doesn't leave much to crank the motor with.

When jump starting a car, it is best to hook up the cables and then let the
running cars alternator put a bit of a charge into the dead cars battery. 
Rev the engine on running car a little bit, for about a minute, to do this.
With the jumpers still connected and the running cars engine reving a
little, crank the dead cars starter.  You will have a much higher success
rate starting dead cars like this.  You want to rev the running cars
engine a bit because alternators don't put out much charging current at
idle.  They do much better when the engine is at about 2,000 to 2,500 rpm.

It did shake quite a bit when I let the clutch out.  It felt as if it siezed
up for a second, and then broke whatever was stuck loose and started being
able to move again.

Yeah, that was the intent.  I didn't care about actually roll starting
(although I've done that a fair amount in the past), but unsticking whatever
had been stuck.  Wouldn't want to do that very often!

The battery seems to still be dead, despite the drive across town.  I guess
I should replace that this weekend, if I get a chance.

Ok, now I'm confused.

A week ago, after getting the cylindars unstuck, we jump started it and it
started right up, no problem.  The starter motor seemed fine.  The electrical
connectivity to it seemed fine.  Later, without jumper cables, it wouldn't
start at all.  The lights wouldn't turn on either.  Dead battery.  That's
easy.

Today I replaced the battery.  I can turn the lights on, so I'm assuming I
did that right.  However, when I turn the key in the ignition, nothing
happens.  Is there something obvious that I'm missing?

No, nothing obvious.  What happens when you jumpstart it?  Maybe the battery
cable(s) are getting thin somewhere, limiting the amount of current that can
flow?  Do the lights dim when you try to start off the battery?

No, lights don't dim.  It's really that I turn the key and nothing happens.
No light dimming, no noise, no anything.  I woudl have thought that if it were
trying to do anything, even with not nearly enough current, I would hear
something, wouldn't I?

I haven't tried jump starting it yet.  I should try that sometime in the next
few days.

Key switch.  Starter solinoid.  Cables.  Oxidized connections / bad ground.

Blown fusible link?  Do they still use those gawdawful things?  They were
always a bear to find.  I've always been amazed at how much an oxidized
connection screws things up, even with a perfectly good battery.  Maybe
the starter switch is bad?  Dunno.

Jim says those are all very logical things to look for.  And they should have
found it too, if Scott went over there he had to have found it, he knows what
to look for.  He thought about the fuse link too but they don't usually put
a fuse link on the starter and usually it affects the lights too but not
always.  (Are you writing this all in there?)  This article has been running
longer than the truck, this item.  He will go look at it some time.  It should
be not tought to figure out where the problem is.  Scott must have found it.

This wasn't the problem when Scott was looking at it.  At that point, it had
stuck cylinders and a dead battery.  We got the cylinders unstuck, and it
jumpstarted fine.  This happened a week later, after I replaced the battery.

The cylinders are suppose to be stuck.

I suggest that Scott, Klaus, and Jim all go over to look at it at the same
time, and maybe the truck will be scared into starting.
What is a stuck/unstuck cylinder?

I've had many people tell me that I scare stuff into working.  Makes it
harder for me to fix though since it is often difficult to fix something
that works.
He meant to say that they think that the pistons were stuck in the
cylinders.

What sorts of things are likely to go wrong with a vehicle that is rarely
driven?  We know about the electrical connections getting rusty so that the
headlights do not work.

Flat spots on the tires.  Funny chemistry in the oil (or possibly the
gasoline.) Brakes rust out.

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