Hello all,
newbie here, Thanks in advance for any wisdom I can absorb from you all!

Here goes: The truck is an 01 Ram2500 with the 24 valve cummins.It has automatic trans and is a long bed extra cab with 4wd. It has around 110,000mies. Ok, I drove to town and all was well with my truck.I shut the truck down, did some shopping then on returning to the truck went to start it and nothing. dash lit up as normal but no click or anything from starter.I knew my bat connections were good, and the bat. had plenty of juice, so I thought it might have something to do with the neutral safety switch. I jiggled the gear shift in Park with the key in the crank position and she fired right up.
Ok so I need to check that switch when I get home... So I make it home, truck ran normal all the way. So the next day I get in it to check if it's going to start and......Nope. Well flash ahead 4 months. I had to go work a job out of state where I wouldn't need my truck, so I left it sit and figured I deal with it when I got back. I did disconnect the batteries.When I got back yesterday I went by napa on the way home and got a neutral safety switch from them. i arrived back at the truck and connected batteries and tried to start it for the hell of it and lights came on but nothing. So I changed out the switch and tried to start it again.Ok the truck turned over,I could tell the batteries were a little low but she sounded like she was about to fire so I cranked on her a couple of times.I know enough about these things to know that you can fry stuff out with low voltage but i felt like a crank or two couldn't hurt.Anyway she turned but did not fire. One thing i noticed was the dash lights were blinking on and off while I cranked. Never saw that before. Well I figured I"d put the charger on her and see what happens. Well, the next time I tried to start her, lights came on but nothing.... just like before I put the new switch in.. Now I figure The switch is just a ground fault switch and that there isn't current going through there to fry the switch out so I'm sort of stumped here. I checked all fuses and made sure I have full batteries with tight clean connections. I tried jiggling the wires on the switch and jiggling the gear lever as well as the ignition switch to no avail....I'm guessing there is some electrical problem going on but I haven't a clue as to where to look........

Sorry for such a long winded account.I tried not to leave anything out.
Is anything jumping out at anyone out there?

Thanks everyone
and Cheers,

 

If I read your post right, I think you have two separate problems. One I beleive may be the contacts in your starter, that would explain full batteries and no crank issue. The no start issue is another thing. Can you hear the lift pump running? Does the truck have any codes? I'm not sure if the three key turn trick works on a 24V or not. In case it does, turn the key from off to on (not start) three times rapidly ending in the on position. If it works you should see any trouble codes in the computer flash on the odometer. Write them down. Wait until it shows ----done---- in the odometer. Then you can shut the key off. Let us know what you find, hopefully someone that knows more about 2nd gens will chime in.

 

Hmmmmm.
I hear the pump, and my power programmer isn't detecting any fault codes. My starter is only a year old, but I've seen them no good right out of the box.
Could be the contacts I suppose, but when I replaced my N/S switch she turned over as usual though not too fast, I thought due to low bat.Do you think I could kill the starter turning it over a few times with low voltage?

I do remember trying to jump the solenoid with a screw driver before changing out the N/S switch and got nothing but sparks, the starter wouldn't spin.

I will go down and try the on-off trick to see if I can find any codes.


Cheers

 

You can do the on-off-on-off-on to read codes on the odometer in the 01's. I wouldn't imagine killing a starter with low battery- at least not with only a few cranks. When my lift pump went out, I was trying to prime the fuel canister, I cranked & cranked mine for what seemed like 10 minutes. Got hot but didn't die. Could be a bad starter though, just bad not from cranking it. Especially if you just got sparks when you used the screwdriver. They are pretty easy to pull and have checked- about 10 minutes to get out.

 

When you tried to start it, did the Bendix on the starter engage? Just because you are getting 'sparks' doesnt mean all is well. Based on all that is happening there can be a bucket full of possibilities. It was slow to crank, check the static voltage on batteries. Get a voltmeter and just hit the post and see what the voltage comes out to be. DC voltage of course. If you get about 12.4, which is a little undercharged to 12.68 VDC, which is a fully charged battery you she be ok on the battery issue. Next do a voltage drop on the starter. Simplest way, take the voltage at the battery while cranking the engine over, then take the voltage at the positive post on the starter while cranking the engine over and the difference between the two readings is the amount of voltage being dropped through the positive wire. I know that is long winded but try it. Off base, maybe! I am unsure if your model has a remote start solenoid which activates off of the key switch, then send power to the starter solenoid. If it does, a voltmeter can tell you if all is well. Just check voltage going in, and voltage coming out. Like I said I am unsure if it has one, I am sure someone else will put there 2 cents in shortly after this post.

For the crank no start issue. How long did the truck sit without being started? Days, weeks, months? Might be loosing its prime. There is a helluva lotta things that can be going wrong. Like I said I might be completely off base here. Try to get more detail of what is happening when you are trying to crank it. Sounds, grunts...anything. I am sure the starter and all is good. Maybe a RSS, i dunno. Get a bit more info and see what we all cant do.

 

I pulled starter and popped off cover on solenoid. contacts were well worn and lo and behold little red wire going to one of the contacts was severed. Thats got to be it. I can't get a contact kit here but napa has a new starter so off I go with my 220 bucks for a fresh one.Lets hope this does it. I'll post again when I get the new starter in.... Thanks for the great advice everyone.