ok I bought this 1996 Ram 2500 with a *L V10 engine ( gas) and it had a 650 ca 500 cca battery, unpion investigation I found it neded a stronger battery as it took a while to start liek I was waiting to get gas to all 10 cylinders, now I have teh correct ca n=and cca battery BUT now the started acty like its not engaging, it soulds liek an 70's checy I had once witha bad selonid
Is this a ground issue or do I need a new starter?

 

I'd make sure the grounds are good at th ends. There are also sometimes grounds from the firewall to the engine blockc too.

 

I just told the guys at battery wholesale to install the biggest, meanest battery, that would physically fit.

 

thanks I'll do that the next warm day we have , when I say warm I mean above 40 thease days)

Yep, mine came from Rual King its a 78DT72

 

I modified my tray an fit a group 31 truck battery good for 1000cca.
x2 on the grounds. Mine had a body lift at one point and they tore the grounds to the heads. Cranking speed definitely improved when I fixed those.

 

The ground repair probably did the most good. A larger battery definitely helped too, BUT, remember that high CCA batteries are not stable. You have to 'exercise' them regularly. If it's a daily driver, no problem. If it's only occasionally used, the battery may not last long. I ran them in a '97 Powerstroke and there was a small battery maintainer connected to the block heater.

 

I only put on 1200ish miles a year. Yes I have problems with batteries, usually only get 1.5-3yrs out of batteries in the v10. However the massive factory sized battery in my daily driver charger is 6yrs old and fine.

 

Battery size is part of the equation, but usage is a component too. My daily needs a battery every three years. It gets used regularly, it is kept in good shape with dielectric grease on the terminals and so on. It's just a rather small battery and space is too tight for a larger one. Back in the 1970's, if you got 12 months from the factory battery on a new car, you were doing good. My sister bought a new 1975 MGB in '75. She was taught to maintain her car by my father who taught me. The only people to ever work on that car was the dealer and me. I replaced the factory battery at 7 years. She kept it filled with distilled water, which you can't do with today's sealed batteries.

 

Big thing for me is the truck is not near electricity and sits in the hot/cold. It would greatly benefit from a proper maintainer.

 

I drove a truck in the North Dakota, Minnesota and sometime the U.P one winter. I'd get a maintainer and a heavy duty extension cord to run power out to it and wire it to come on with th block heater. (You're in North Dakota so I'm sure you have a block heater.). We would park our trucks at night away from the wind and with cardboard over the radiator and plug the block heaters into a central power pole in the yard. We could get started without it, but the easier starting and faster heat was worth the trouble.