Ignition related issue....I think.

When I turn the key in the ignition is has been hard to turn off and on for several months. now , all of a sudden, i am having serious problems. 1) when i turn the key the cluster lights will slowly come on or there will be a delay in them coming on. 2) the battery does not hold a charge. when you turn the key, all you hear is the clicking of the starter. 3) there is an issue now with the idle. I can not start the truck without "giving it some gas" and then i have to slowly back the RPMs down for it to rest in an idle. If I take my foot off above 1000 rpms then the truck will just die.

All of these seem to have started at the same time. It feels like it is related to replacing the ignition but i wanted a "wisdom" check before i started that.

Thanks for you input.

Thank you for the advice. I started with diagnosing the battery situation. I took the battery into the parts store and they claimed that it was good but i left if with them to charge it up. It sat in the back of my 05 ram before i had a chance to test it in my 98 ram. I put it in today and nothing. the lights on the 98 ram dont even come on. it reads like the battery is completely dead. I jumped it with my 05 ram to see if the battery was causing the idle issue. When I had the jumper cables hooked up, the 98 still had no ability to maintain an idle. it would not even start if i did not have my foot on the gas.

I realized that I need a new battery at this point, but what would be the next diagnosing step for the idle issue?

If you're ignition switch is hard to turn if replace it. Whether it's corrosion or wear sounds like something is going on in there.

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I replaced the battery and it started up like new. I appreciate everyone's input. It does not make sense to me , but it is fixed.

Glad to hear the issue is fixed. Engines not running well or at all without gas on a dead or bad battery isn't uncommon. Usually it's a combination of an old alternator and bad battery. At idle a new alternator can only put it a fraction of its current rating, when it's old that number drops some. If your battery is bad with a shorted cell or just get low on charge it will act like a massive load on the electrical system, normally the battery makes up for the difference between the load and what the alternator can actually put out. However, when the battery is dead, at idle it can draw so much Avalible power from the system that other things have difficulty running.

On the occasion that my battery goes dead if I don't charge it for awhile, I have to hold the accelerator to keep it from stalling out when the idle voltage drops below 11.5ish volts. Even revving the engine when this happens only brings it up to the high 12s,instead of the 13-14v it normally sits at. My alternator is original from 2001 and is getting weak, put a dead or bad battery in the mix and it won't run. But charging it up until it can maintain 12.2v ish with the key on run engine off fixes the issue.

Just something to keep in mind if your battery ever does go dead in the future, if it has trouble running for the next 5-20 minutes, there is probably nothing wrong.

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