Hi, new to the forum and hoping someone can help with 2003 3500 passenger van with 190,000 miles. The story may be strange to anyone who hasn't lived in the New Mexico desert, but here goes.

We bought the van at a surplus auction and used it daily until pandemic hit and we had to shut down our after school kid's program. It's been sitting here on the farm and last ran a couple months ago.

Went to jump it today and discovered a small pack rat nest in the engine compartment. Constantly have to watch for this type of thing here, and this nest was only a couple days old. Cleaned out all the pieces of cactus, rocks and other crap we could see. No wires looked chewed because the rats don't seem to like the old wire covering as much as the newer stuff.

We tried to jump start the van. It cranked a couple times and then with no unusual sound everything went dead. Turn the key and the dash doesn't respond. No lights, no horn, it's as of no power is reaching the past the battery.

We know almost nothing about the van, having driven it only a couple miles a day to pick up kids. Being a farm we are used to fixing stuff so we checked fuses and looked again for damaged wires. The lights don't work so we are thinking it isn't directly related to the ignition switch.

Is there a chance this isn't related to rodent damage and someone has seen it before? Either way we would appreciate any suggestions for how to fix or troubleshoot.

Thanks in advance!
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that could very well be the case. Your van has a fusible link on the battery.
See if you measure 12V on the main stud in your fuse box.

If not, then I would do a little investigation first before powering things up. There's a reason why it blew.

 

@mountainmanjoe Thank you for this response, and I apologize for the delay in getting back-- I have been on the road.

I checked the 125 amp fuse that is on the left end of the main engine compartment fuse block. The fuse was fine, and with my positive meter probe attached to the incoming battery cable it read 12.6 v if the negative probe touched any point in the compartment that I expected to be a ground. Same result once I reconnected the cables to the fuse and checked on the outgoing cable.

I tried to look for damage along the battery cables and didn't see any. Obviously could not see all of the cables, but if the positive cable was shorting out to ground somewhere I am guessing that the battery and cables would have gotten very hot?

I would appreciate any further ideas on how to troubleshoot this.

Thank you,

 

what about the other side of the 125A mega fuse?

 

Sorry, I should have been clearer. It measured 12.6 on the other side of the fuse once I connected the leads back to the fuse block.

 

Then I would check for power on both sides of the IGN A & B fuses

 

Will do, thank you!