I turned the ignition key to start the engine and i had no electical power. No dash lights,no interior lights, no crank, no nothing.
i raised the hood. no hood light. i grabed the 2 cables to the positive and negative posts to the battery and gently pulled back and forth. they were tight. as i was pulling on the cables, the hood light came on.
i turned the ignition key on. i had full power. vehicle cranked and started.
i have cranked the vehicle several times since and i have had no problem.
the negative gound cable to chasis is good. the cables to the battery look good.
anybody got any ideas as to the likely cause of the problem?

95 dodge ram 5.9L auto

 

Which one did you pull that caused the light to come on? If you have those open end battery terminals (where you clamp the wires) those corrode all the time lol

 

Yeah, pull the cables off the battery, and thoroughly clean the terminals, and battery posts.

 

thanks, you are both right.
the exterior of the connections to the battery look clean
i took them off and found that the negative post was corroded a little. the battery post shim was badly corroded.
the positive post and connector was in good shape.
i cleaned both posts and the connectors and replaced the battery post shim. i lubricated all surfaces with petroleum jelly
that will probably fix the problem. i will post an update if not.
Lesson: these post shims apparently corrode quickly (at least mine did). and you cannot tell unless you disconnect the shim from the post