electrical woes

TK_05 said:

well today i go out to start the stang.. get in.. push the clutch in.. turn the key and bam... nothing happens and all the electricals turn off... walk outside... and maybe 3 minutes later the electrical turns back on... so i go to do the same thing and still nothing... kills the car and i have to wait for it to turn back on again.. wtf is going on? this is really weird.. any suggestions?

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Sounds like you have a bad battery connection. Make sure ALL the cables are clean and tight.

have the battery charged and load tested.

i agree with cjones. when you try to draw juice to start, you kill the static charge and actually all charge the battery had. you get nada. havent you ever left a light on in a car. come out, kill the light. battery is pretty dead, try to start, and it does not turn over, and also kills the lighting, and even radio presets?

sounds like the same thing. i would do what cjones said. you can check specific gravity and stuff like that, but it is easier to take it in for testing (normally free).
good luck.

i would still stop by the parts store and have the charging system checked out.
answer this. if everything dies out on the car at some point, how can the battery or cables not be at fault? if you have an intermittant problem, it will be fine at times. the trick is to jump on it when it does not work and troubleshoot it then.

if you want all the possibilities, search Jrichker for his no-start checklist. if the problem is not on that list, the kitchen sink is at fault, as that is the only thing not listed to check. great list.
good luck.

TK_05 said:

the battery is fine.. all the lights are bright... the stereo plays.. and the guage in the car reads fine... i dont think it has anything to do w/ the battery

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but, did you LOAD test it??

your lights, and stereo won't put a 200 amp load on it like the starter will.

you said that when you try to start the car(high load) everything shuts off and you have to wait a few minutes before you have power. if the battery isn't at fault then you have a bad connection, a bad cable/s or a bad starter.

what is the battery voltage (at the battery, not the volt gauge inside the car) when you try to start it?? it should stay above 10v during cranking.

9 times out of 10 it's a bad battery to ground connection!
The other time it's a dead battery or a battery with at least one of its six cells dead.

Try the jumpstart method, jump start the car and see if it will run. If it does, I guarantee you it won't restart on its own after cuttinh off because either it's a bad ground so the battery isn't getting a good charge from the alternator and/or the battery is dead and the vehicle is running purely off of alternator amperage.

*When you try to start it, is there a continuous clicking sound or anything?

As requested...

Here's a checklist:

Check battery, terminal connections, ground, starter relay switch (also known as solenoid) and starter in that order.

A voltmeter is handy if you are familiar with how to use it to find bad connections. Measure the voltage drop across a connection: more than .5 volts across a connection indicates a problem.

1.) Will the car start if it is jumped? Then clean battery terminals and check battery.

2.) Check the battery to engine block ground, and the ground behind the engine to the firewall.

3.) Check the cables for cracks in the insulation, and corrosion around the wire where it joins the connector. Look for swelling of the cable’s diameter which would indicate corrosion inside the cable. Bending the cable can often reveal corrosive damage inside the cable when the outside looks OK.

4.) Then pull the small push on connector (red wire) off the starter relay (Looks like it is stuck on a screw) and jump it to the terminal that is connected to the battery. If it starts, the relay is good and your problem is in the rest of the circuit.

5.) Remember to check the ignition switch, neutral safety switch on auto trans and the clutch safety switch on manual trans cars. If they are good, then the relay is bad.

6.) Jump the big terminals on the starter relay next to the battery with a screwdriver - watch out for the sparks! If the engine cranks, the starter and power wiring is good. The starter relay is also known as a starter solenoid.

7.) The starter may be hung, loosen up the bolts that hold it on, and give it a good whack with a big hammer. Tighten up the bolts and try again.

8.) If that doesn't work, use a jumper cable from the positive lead on the battery direct to the starter post where the big wire from the relay connects. If it cranks then, it is the power wire from the relay gone bad. This will be hard to do, since there isn't much room to do it.

9.) Pull the starter and take it to Autozone or Pep Boys and have them test it. Starter fails test, then replace it. If you got this far, the starter is probably bad.

Thats your answer. You have a bad connection. Picture this: you have a small connection between the battery and somewhere in the car. Under light load, this connection can power the headlights and the radio. When you go to start the car, the connection is too small to handle the load and actually opens like a fuse.

Had it happen to me a dozen times before. Take a few minutes and put a wrench on all the connections including the grounds. If that doesnt do anything, make sure that the cables have not failed at the terminals. Sometimes they pull or work their way loose.

I had some simliar type problems on an aircraft starter many years ago. The starter was on the underside of the engine, and oil from a leak dripped down on it. The oil got into the lug on the power wire to the starter and sometimes it would crank and sometimes it wouldn't. The oil created a high resistance connection that worked intermittently. I found it one day when it didn't crank, and I tried wiggling the lug to see if it was tight on the bolt. The heat from the high resistance connection burned my hand. There was no doubt in my mind where the problem was then.

87'GTstang said:

9 times out of 10 it's a bad battery to ground connection!
The other time it's a dead battery or a battery with at least one of its six cells dead.

Try the jumpstart method, jump start the car and see if it will run. If it does, I guarantee you it won't restart on its own after cuttinh off because either it's a bad ground so the battery isn't getting a good charge from the alternator and/or the battery is dead and the vehicle is running purely off of alternator amperage.

*When you try to start it, is there a continuous clicking sound or anything?

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I wont jumpstart a car till I am sure the battery is dead. I fried a new battery once doing this. I turn on the headlights for a full minute or so and see if they get dim. If they dont, the battery is fine. I use a voltmeter during this load test, the volts shouldnt drop below 12v.

Also dont assume that because a part is new that it is good. I have gotten plenty of new parts that were no good. If your cables look old, replace all of them, including the starter wire. You will be doing yourself a huge favor. I dont like to patch things, I would rather fix them and avoid future problems.