Hi my name is Ayden and I’m new here so I hope I’m posting this in the right spot. I’m having an issue with my starter. When I turn the key on and try to start the engine, absolutely nothing happens. It doesn’t try and crank over, there’s no fast ticking indicating the battery is dead. It almost seems like everything turns off as soon as I attempt to crank the engine over. And I’m at the point where I don’t know what my next steps should be. I tried jumping the battery, I cleaned the battery terminals, I tried checking the starter relay and fuses, I tapped the starter with a hammer and pushed the Durango forward in an attempt to free the starter up if it was stuck. And nothing has worked. If someone could help me I would really appreciate it because I’m about ready to give up.

 

Are you still losing all power when you try and start?

 

QUOTE=HeyYou;3459211]Are you still losing all power when you try and start?[/QUOTE]

It Appears that way. When the ignition switch is on, you can hear the beeping if the door is open and the beeping if the key is left in the ignition like normal. The radio works, the lights works etc... as soon as I go to turn over the engine however, everything turns off until I let off of the key. once I let off the key, it sounds as If everything starts to reset itself almost as if someone disconnected the battery and then reconnected it

 

To me, it sounds as if there is a poor connection somewhere, usually battery terminals. You cleaned them but make sure they are tight and nothing is loose down stream from battery lug such as crimped connections or loose nuts for junctions, also no serious visible oxidation. I’ve seen people tighten terminals too hard by yanking and cranking or just wrong angle while tightening and end up tearing up the battery internally to where the post is at an angle and battery is done, so good and tight is good. Check with a twisting motion that battery cable lug does not rotate on terminal.

You can take the starter out and test it. There are some quick videos on doing this. Might help narrow down things. Also multimeters are helpful with knowing if you have enough power at the battery or other things.

 

I agree with this assessment. I have also had the battery posts (on a top post battery....) develop some kind of black coating on them, that didn't conduct well.... (like, at all.....) My usual batter terminal tool didn't touch it. I ended up scraping it with a knife, and then the tool, and that worked great.

 

I have had many many Chrysler products over the years (I have never had anything but!) and in all but my newest ones (like mid 90s and up) I have had to replace both battery cables in all of them. They get nasty green corroded under the insulation and sometimes they'll start sometimes not. Most recently, this past summer, had to replace the + side that goes to the starter on my 55k original mile 78 Sport Fury.
I've had Cordobas, Diplomats, Aspens, Volares, a Fifth Ave, a B250 van, several square body pickups, a 97 Ram 1500 4wd, and 5 or 6 Dakotas, 2 Wranglers, 2 Cherokees, and this Durango. and all but the Dakotas, 1 Cherokee, the Wranglers, and the 01 Durango, have had to have the battery cables changed under my ownership. More than half of the cars and trucks I have ever owned.
The cables did get changed kind of by default on the Durango, had an electrical issue that had me pulling my hair out, replaced the whole wiring harness under the hood trying to rule out a driveability issue, though the replacement harness came from a junkyard donor, IDK if I can "count" that one, since the harness I put in was also used..... the rest got new battery cables "by themselves" independent of the rest of the wiring harnesses....though that Durango came to me, with one of those replacement terminal ends that I hate on the negative side.

One thing that drives me nuts, and will aggravate this condition, is when people will cut off the ends of the battery cables, strip the ends and put those temporary battery terminal ends on. Those leave you with bare copper right at the battery, when batteries "out-gas" while charging from the alt., that speeds up/aggravates the corrosion issue on those cables. especially on the "-" cable where they are like 2 feet long and both ends are readily accessible. Fix em right. If you have to cut the battery terminals, get copper lugs and crimp them onto the original cable instead and use those 2 "mickey mouse ears" where the strap bolts on and put the lug hole thru those bolts, and remember "hear shrink is your friend" in preventing this corrosion. Once it starts, it grows along the strands within the cable, you wont see it unless you strip the insulation off a ways from the end.
Those cables love to rot off within the terminals where they can't be seen, but a proper copper, crimped terminal coated with shrink tube, slows that process way down. on my Fury, it did this at the starter end.
I bought a 25' spool of 4 gauge automotive cable in each red and black, and make my own cables that way. Correct length and right colors for which ever cable needs replaced. Usually I find the bulk packed cables either "just too short" or wayyyy too long, and the opposite color of the cable needing replaced at the time.

 

another story... yeah it has to do with a Ford, but also has to do with bad battery cables. I am a fleet mechanic for the State, one of our state agencies had a pickup towed to me, "wouldn't start". I opened the hood and grabbed the battery cables gave them a twist, and it fired right up, fresh off the flatbed. the vehicle coordinator at that state agency said "the workers 'tried everything'.... a couple of them tried jumping it supposedly and had no results before they towed it. this truck had one of those Mickey Mouse battery terminal ends on the "-" terminal. on a truck where the neg cable was all of about 14" long total. Well just say more than one person was pizzed that we spent $150 on a tow, for less than a $10 fix (which was to replace that negative ground cable) and I hear there were a lot of shrugged shoulders, when those that "tried to jump it and didn't succeed" were told what had to be done to fix this truck...… as an aside, Im not a Ford fan in the least as that is mostly what I am stuck working on at work, but this one still has the 300 inline 6, one of few Ford engines I would consider owning, "if I had to" drive a Ford.