problem with the truck starting up

truck has trouble starting... it takes sometimes 3 cranks. or just is completely dead. no lights nothing. checked spark plugs, looked at the battery and the negative seemed a little loose so me and my dad are gunna tighten that in a minute.  just trying to see if anyone else had an opinion from anyone else with suggestions with what could be going wrong. it will die if u just leave it idling as well

bigbrent said:

truck has trouble starting... it takes sometimes 3 cranks. or just is completely dead. no lights nothing. checked spark plugs, looked at the battery and the negative seemed a little loose so me and my dad are gunna tighten that in a minute.  just trying to see if anyone else had an opinion from anyone else with suggestions with what could be going wrong. it will die if u just leave it idling as well

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I am not following the "it takes sometimes 3 crank or is just completely dead". Cranking the engine is the engine spinning over before firing off. Do you mean 3 key cycles and then does crank and start or no cranking at all during the 3 key cycles or what? To get it started before dies while idling do you jump start it? Sounds like may have an alt problem but all basics first. Tight clean connections, enough power in battery, voltage drop....etc.

no just its fire then die unless I give the truck gas. or until all the electronics in the truck cut off an I have no power and the car wont even try an crank. it is hard to put in words what exactly is happening. u have to see what im talking about. my dad seems to think is the crank sensor  or something like that.

But how do you get it to crank the engine before the engine starts and then dies? Do you have to jump start? And when it does die are you saying it will not crank again till you jump start it? Chronological order of what is happening would help greatly and did the problem just start or has it been happening for a while but is now worse? 

when it is completely dead I have to let it sit for a minute. its really weird. my dad thinks its the crank sensor or something going bad. im taking it to my mechanic Monday to see if he can see what it is

I would be leaning toward a starter or solenoid problem or voltage drop prob or connection probs. Let us know what the tech finds.

Maybe a bad module( the big grey square fuse, locate in the big black box) on the fuel line.
If he start up but after die