1997 Hardbody electrical issues

[Q451990]

I had a '97 HB and sold it to my neighbor back in July of 2009. Anyhow, he mentioned to me that he's having some electrical issues, and if it's something simple I wouldn't mind helping him out with it.

He says that it will sometimes just shut off at idle, and left him stranded once last week. He's replaced the battery recently, and I assume the alternator is OK. The latest symptom is that the interior lights dim down when he turns the heater fan on. He thinks it's a grounding issue somewhere. I'm leaning toward an intermittant alternator problem - but that's just a wild guess. He also has had some trouble getting it to start... turns the key and nothing. He says he has to "machine gun" the key to get it to start. He's tried a starter relay, and seems to think the starter is fine - but I don't know how he confirmed that.

Is there anything common that you guys have experienced? This thing always ran like a top for me, but everything breaks at some point. The only issue I ever had was a little bit of an irregular idle when the a/c was off, but it was so intermittant that I never took the time to trace it down.

Heath

[RT22]

Intermittent problems like this are almost always a ground issue, especially sense it is a few different issues not just starting issue. Start at battery ground then trace the battery ground to frame where it grounds top frame also check ecu ground under passenger seat this is most likely a ground issue to just die some times. And to not start some times. Check the ground and positive cables on batter inside the connection corrosion can buil in the cable if the connectors are not bolt on but sealed cut and put on new connectors, cheap and easy to be sure. My friend had a cable with corrosion on the inside and did not see until he removed the clamps, we cut off 1 inch and cable was clean and his problems stopped.