Complete electrical shutdown - temporary

[Bammo]

Tonight I parked the Ute outside the house and took a moment to listen in to a Ham radio conversation that was going on. After maybe 2 minutes the radio cut out and I noticed that all electrical power was gone. Nothing at all was lighting up and engine totally unresponsive.

I checked the fuse bay and connections thinking that the new battery I fitted a couple of weeks ago might not have been securely mounted but all OK and nothing appeared out of the ordinary. I was about to go inside to get a multimeter to start checking fuses when the radio came back to life and the ute appears normal (albeit the radio had lost its programming). No more than 6 or 7 minutes from cutting out and apart from some prodding no real action from me.

Not a particularly hot day and nothing unusual going on except for listening to the amateur radio which is wired direct to the battery (via a fuse of course). It's only drawing about 1A on receive and 5A on transmit and the battery wasn't flattened at all so I can't figure out what happened. The inline fuse on the radio (10A) was untouched.

Is there some type of temperature sensitive re-settable fuse on the battery connection?

[OffRoadDave]

You say the amatuer radio also cut out?

Well if it's wired directly to the battery on its own fuse, it can only be a loose terminal clamp or a faulty battery as best as I can figure.

[ag9111]

I would say a loose.battery clamp.
Had a similar issue once. Replaced negative battery clamp. All good

[Bammo]

Thanks guys - it was the negative battery clamp. Seemed absolutely secure and was tightened onto a new battery only a month ago. Touching the earth strap though you could hear arcing. Weird, the difference between working perfectly and dead as a doornail was a tiny amount of pressure on the cable...

[Longranger1]

Good result. Much better than aliens hovering above you.

[MrCozy]

not sure if my current problem relates, but turn ute on, let glow plugs warm up, go to start, and everything goes dead. happened few times randomly now..found if i slapped positive lead on battery, fine again till next time..suspecting fuse link going, but which one?

[MrCozy]

After this happening numerous times, finally decided to figure out what was happening.. was as simple as both battery clamp nuts loosening up, probably from vibrations


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