No start, turn on lites then it starts

[Rickk]

Hi everybody been gone a while nephew blew up my 2000 1500. so now I have a well kept 1994 RAM 2500 2x4, 360. mabe somebody has seen this, just started when I turn key to start NOTHING, so I turned on head lites then off, truck starts up fine. This has happened 3 times. I am thinking start switch at the moment.

 

[WALDO_Actual]

Hi RickK!

I did some welding on my 2001 1500 (5.9) recently and though I was good by completely disconnecting the battery and some fuses to protect the truck. when I went to start however, I had to turn on my headlights to get power through the switch (though this didn't always work). I noticed that my phone charger light died when I went to IGNITION START, which indicated it was the switch. Oddly enough, I let the truck sit overnight and haven't had a problem since.

>If you haven't already, I would disconnect the battery then ground the truck and let it sit overnight. Sounds odd but it may help, and save you a little cash before you buy a new ignition switch.
>If that doesn't do it, I would check the battery terminal and ignition wires to make sure you don't have some sort of short that you're bypassing by turning on the lights (seen stranger things)

Hopefully this helps, if anything you know you're not alone. Other than a wiring issue or the truck somehow holding an irregular charge of some sort I'm not sure what's causing this.

 

[dudeman2009]

I noticed that my phone charger light died when I went to IGNITION START, which indicated it was the switch.

If the phone charger is plugged into the cigarette lighter then if will shutoff when the ignition is set to the start position. Only the 12v accessory power will stay on when the key is in the start position, but the voltage will drop considerably while cranking, down as low as 8v is considered acceptable on this age of truck during the initial surge to the starter. Which may still cause some devices to shut down.