This only lasted a couple days and then it happened again today. With the positive cable mounted on the terminal and the negative removed, with the truck completely off when I tap the negative terminal it creates a large enough spark that it tacks the cable end to the terminal. With both cables on the terminal my automatic charger will ramp up maximum amps, but when ibremove the negative cable from the battery terminal it drops to 1/3 of the amps it was pulling from the charger.... it was doing the same thing the other day, but when I took off both cable and held them together for a minutes and then waited a few minutes and put them back on, it didn't spark at all. No idea what's drawing the current so much it would spark like that with no charger and the truck completely off, but today when I tried the same thing it kept sparking and made no difference. I should mention while driving these days the dash say 14.2-14.4v, which is higher than usual...
So this morning the truck started right up, drove for 10 minutes, parked for 8 hrs and it would only click... charge connected to cables high amps, disconnect one cable lower amps, sparks, frustration, more charging, cold AF outside and finally I crawled under the truck with ignition set to run and poked blindly with a nut driver until hitting the right terminals on the standard to get it to turn, almost started, but couldn't find the terminals again. After a bit more fumbling I hit terminals that make it spin, but without the bendix engaging, so I let itbspin for 30 seconds, crawl out from under the truck and push the button and it starts, weakly, but started nonetheless.
I get home shut it off and cranks up easily, but the whole time @ 14.2-14.4 volts. I start it again pop the hood and remove the negative terminal, tap it and sparks fly. I push the cable down so it won't slouch and as I walk around the door the truck stalls, shouldn't stall bit it did. I slip the cable back on loose and start it then quickly remove the cable and run around the door... 13.4-13.5v. It has a little stutter every 15-20sec9nds but doesn't stall and I let it run for a minute. Then I slipped the cable back on the terminal and it was at 13.9v, took the cable off back to 13.5, slip it back on 13.9, Rev it and still 13.9. Tighten the cable on the terminal, 13.9, shut it off and start it back up(starter sounded quick than it has been) and it rises to 13.9v and stays steady.... I turn it off and on a couple times, every time 13.9v..sometimes it flutters to 13.8v, but mostly stays at 13.9v.... 1/14/24 - will update