Does not want to start!

Hey guys I'm having some trouble with my truck & I am completely stuck, a 2000 single cab sr5 4.7 4wd. Would really appreciate some help in figuring out what is wrong with her.

Here is how it went;

I had just finished replacing the front end suspension, axles, rack & pinion, oil pan as she had a leak, & the powersteering lines to the rack. Only electric plug I messed with was the one to the front differential that I had to remove to put in the new oil pan, took me a over the span of a few days & when the weekend hit I work 13 hours over night trying to finish it all.

Next day I was leaving my friends house when they told me that my passenger side tail light was out, I had just replaced all the bulbs a few weeks before so I just thought it blew because it had the same bulbs for a while.

Next day I get pulled over because my brake & tail lights on both sides stopped working, just got a warning thank Christ.

The next day is a work day for me & I am running a little behind so I was rushing. I hop into my truck to go to work & I see that the battery symbol is on, I knew that battery as starting to get old so I didn't think much of it & was gonna swing by auto zone after I got off.

I get off & make my way to auto zone & I'm about 2 miles away when someone cuts me off in a turn lane & I am forced to stop very abruptly. At that moment the engne started vibrating very violently & shuts off on me, didn't start up again & I had to get towed home, thank you AAA.

I take the battery to get checked & they tell me its still healthy just dead, they charge it up for me & I put it back in, still will not turn over, the starter can be heard doing its thing but nothing. I checked all the fuses & all are still good, I checked in the engine bay & the ones in the cab.

I take out the alternator & get it tested, it was producing all of 2.1 amps so I get another, tried that with the fully charged old battery, same result as before, the starter can be heard making its noises but thats it.

Next I try a new battery with the new alternator & still nothing. I bought a short detector at harbor freight, frickin' expensive, I put it in the tail light that went out & it says it detects a short, I follow it to the giant mess of cables behind the fuse box, the cables are still wrapped up from the factory so nothing can be visibly be seen as cut, burnt, or frayed.

I'm affraid that the engine locked up when it died but I have no idea how to tell or if it jumped timing. Has anyone had this problem & know of a fix? She was my only car so I had to scrabble to find something that could get me to work, I don't want to give up on her as she is my dream truck, but I have no idea what to do next.

 

Is the ECM still in that parted out access cab in the yard? Pull it and see if the part number matched to what you have in the regular cab. Also, READ THIS THREAD and pay close attention to the water leak section!

 

Sounds like you have the classic problem of corrosion inside your battery cables and/or bad terminals. Both happen often in these trucks.

That's my first culprit at least.