Battery Saga Continues (part 3)

[MikeLight77]

I have had a couple different posts on here about an adventure we had while on vacation where we killed all our batteries... got them going again - happy ending (to the trip).

The latest. Got home from trip. Parked RV. (Storage) everything working fine.

2 weeks later - want to bring it to the house for some maintenance - Chassis Batteries COMPLETELY Dead.
Removed batteries. Bought a battery charger. Charged them. They're fine now. Holding 13+V no problem.
Reinstall batteries. Key in ignition... all dash lights light up. Engine cranks like crazy but will NOT START.
I did notice my "WAIT TO START" light is not coming on.
Did the completely dead battery affect some other system?
2006 Holiday Rambler / Cummins 5.9L

Furthermore - I think I found the source of the battery drain. As I was reconnecting all the wires, this one sucker here arced a little bit... so something is pulling a current. But I have no idea what. The wire is marked (30A). There are 2 of these wires but only one of them arced. What system could it be? I checked everything and saw nothing switched on in the coach. This wire does NOT go to the Power Shut Off Switch in the battery compartment... so that explains that. I was wondering how this could have happened when I shut that switch down.

Thanks everyone as always!

 

[Kirk]

If it cranks but makes no effort to start, I would first suspect that the fuel pump is not operating.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Wait To Start will illuminate only in colder weather, so that may not be a concern.

Things that are powered off the chassis batteries include the powered entry step, slide motors, LP gas detector, and the pre-heater for the engine air intake.

 

[MikeLight77]

Kirk, I had the thing completely serviced right before our trip (early July)... and I know they did "fuel system service" including filters, etc... but not sure if they checked out the pump.

Would the dead battery have contributed to this, you think? Is there a computer controlling that pump somewhere that needs to be reset or something?

Gary - thanks, I will check those systems!

 

[climberbob]

Are the battery's getting fully charged? We had our solenoid go bad and would not charge the battery's fully.

 

[MikeLight77]

Climberbob - I fully charged them externally... and the engine is cranking like crazy, just not firing.

 

[MikeLight77]

Update: I read on some Diesel forums that smoke out of the exhaust indicates whether or not fuel is actually reaching the engine. I'm getting smoke out of the exhaust... so I'm getting fuel, but maybe low compression?

 

[Kirk]

If you are sure that there is fuel in the exhaust, that would eliminate the fuel pump as a possibility. Some gas chassis do have a safety shut-off for the fuel pump but I'm not sure that a diesel would have.

I don't see how a discharged battery could cause the fuel pump to not work once it has been charged again.

 

[MikeLight77]

Mystery Solved everyone - thanks for the tips.

I was out walking today, and when walking, it's very meditative... and my mind wanders. I frequently will come up with solutions to things that I've been stuck on.

Today, the thought crossed my mind... "what if, when putting the batteries back in, I forgot to hook something back up... like what if there is ONE wire not connected...?"

Well, guess what?

There was a stray wire that was hidden behind the battery. Hooked that sucker up and she fired right up.

Embarrassing, sure. But posting here to raise awareness. There are a lot of wires in there.

Make sure you get them all!

 

[MikeLight77]

I still have that one red wire drawing current even when I think everything should be powered off. In order to not drain my chassis batteries I pulled the fuse. I need to figure out where that is going.