Hi Lb29,
Come on now, you managed to get to here and it is only a matter of time before this gets straightened out AND you can do it. We have all been there at one time and some of us many times.

Normally we don't like to jump into putting ideas out there while other folks are trying to help. But,,,,,,,,in the interests of preventing an unnecessary fire and the loss of a good vehicle suppose we start at the beginning, OK?

If I understand what you are seeing, correctly, Usually when we get the rapid clicking when attempting to start a vehicle it has a lot to do with the power getting to the starter solenoid. Now what causes this ? Poor connections , high resistance in the power supplied to the starter assy. or insufficient voltage coming from the battery to the starter assy. Still, with us?
The path this power takes is from the battery, thriugh the connecting cables, BOTH at the battery AND at the vehicle. We are pretty sure you made sure the connections at the battery are clean and tight , right? You do need to remove the cables from the battery and look underneath them to make sure that is clean and has no corrosion.
That is part of the job, another part is the cables. The best way to prove this is with voltage drop testing because cables can be corroded internally and you can't see this.
Another part of the job is the connections where the cables connect to the vehicle. Make sure they are CLEAN and tight Looking at them does nothing , they need to be removed , cleaned and reinstalled. Let us know how you make out with this, thanks.

 

yes, we have already taken everything off, and cleaned it and replaced battery cables, and double checked grounds and terminals and cables it’s getting power to the starter and solenoid, battery is brand new, and we also checked, connections to fuse panels, all fuses are good. The biggest change we have noticed, was when key wasn’t in the ignition the other day, all I did was move the steering wheel up and down and it kicked on the park lights and brake lights and caused the rapid clicking again without the key in the ignition. But no power to door locks or windows and the touch screen dash just flickered.Now the only thing that we have not done is test t he voltage drop, because we do not have the proper tools to check voltage with, besides the battery and alternator tester and a basic power light tester.

 

Just to be sure, that rapid clicking you hear, it is the solenoid on the starter , or is it a circuit breaker vibrating inside the vehicle.

The symptoms you described are what we get when there is a short circuit in the wiring and from your description it is in the wiring coming from the steering column.

This type problem will require someone that likes to chase down electrical problems PLUS , is familiar with the electronics in your vehicle. Because strange things can happen with those electrons, you need to have the equip , knowledge and a wiring diagram, and most folks don't have access to the info.
Now I have more of an idea of what is taking place , this will not be quite as easy to find as first thought.There are modules that may be involved and without a capable scan tool a lot of time and effort will be wasted when with the right equip it can be much easier.

 

yea, I agree, my father has been a licensed mechanic, around 40 years, and said this is the first truck he’s ever owned, that is more computer and wires, than an actual mechanical vehicle. Which is going to be like finding a needle in a haystack, or just throwing money in to it blindly. But also he’s aggravated with it because this is the 3rd time it’s been broke down had it 5 months and only driven it 4 weeks without it being in a shop transmission and motor both have been changed with in that little time frame, which is why he’s so aggravated with it

 

Revisit the grounds, wire wheel were they attach on frame, block etc.

 

we did that as well, still no solution, even had it at a shop and they couldn’t even figure it out still no crank and no start. Shop had it for three days and could not fix it so now it’s sitting back in our drive way still broke down. They checked all grounds fuses and ran several different diagnostics on it everything checked out but yet they still couldn’t get it to crank or start so they basically gave up and called us to come get it because they have no clue why it’s acting up

 

I’m having this same problem with my 2014 Silverado. Did you ever figure out what happened?? I’m so confused on what’s going on with my truck

 

My first time seeing this thread - it's from 2022.

It sounds like they had a ground (or harness) issue somewhere under the dash. My thought is find the ground issue preventing the dash, etc from lighting up and then the truck will start. There are multiple ground points for the harness under the dash - there are lots of posts in this forum (and others) discussing various ground points.

 

the was the problem. The fusible link on top the battery. Moved the cables onto the post that wasn’t being used and bam started up and has been running fine. The fuse I popped was a 175 and the one I swapped it over to is a 125. Don’t know what caused it to pop nor how long a 125a fuse will last. Drove truck all day yesterday and didn’t have an issue.

 

It's great you found the issue. Moving over to 125A fusible link is a great temporary fix but I would get a new fusible link so that you can get that circuit back up to 175A. It looks like you might not be able to get the fusible link by itself, at least not from GM.
https://www.gmpartsdirect.com/oem-pa...block-84354716

I mentioned "ground (or harness) issue somewhere under the dash" because of the debugging the OP had already done under the hood and also because he had an issue when he tilted the steering column.