It's been below freezing here for the past two days. Truck has sat for a few days. When I push the start button nothing happens. No click, nothing. I didn't have a multimeter to check batteries and connections. That will be the first check tomorrow morning. Two questions though: It has an electrical device that says isso 'something' on it. I gather it's there to protect the engine. Would that shut down everything if it gets too cold? I don't have pictures of it. It's hard to see under the dash where it is and I haven't had a chance to look up what it is online to see how it works. The engine is a 444xt and it looks like it has a heater element in the pan on the left side and a block heater on the right side towards the back. What do I need to hook these up? Is there a temp controller or do I just need to find the right plugs to fit them?
First question is do you have power to the cab/cluster? Yes that does look like block and oilpan heater elements. The elec cords push on and are held in by a nut. No controler the elements will heat to a certain temp and keep it there. All you need is to buy the electrical cords which as far as I know can be baught sepperatly from the element.
Looks like basic block heater connections. You can buy a Y cord with 2 plugs so that you only hav to plug in 1 cord. Google Zerostart, they have an online catalog. Before you do, put an ohm meter on them. I'm not sure what the ohms should be, but it should not be open or shorted. Then ohm each pin to ground to make sure none of them are shorted to ground. If you find any problems, replace the heating element.
Typically somewhere in the range of 20 to 50 ohms. You need a decent meter, and have it on the correct setting, and, of course know how to read it. These relatively small ohm devices can look like a dead short(ie 0 ohms) if you don't have it set and zeroed correctly. Also, as far as the no power, if you find that your batteries are still up, make sure there isn't an isolation switch that will shut off power (saw one once down by drivers seat, driver unwittingly kicked it into "off" then spent HOURS trying to figure out what happened).
