ddahlgren

Charged the battery from sitting with cables disconnected hooked it back up after charging. Started fine ran it for about 1/2 hour and parked it. When to start it this morning as other car is in the shop and clicked once then nothing no dash lights instruments etc. Battery has 12.3V as does large relay behind the battery.

Is it possible the fusible link that seems to power most everything is burned out? Looking in the electrical section o the FSM it seems like the only way to fail so much. If yes how miserable is this to change? It seems like fender panel off batter out battery box out at least.

WVZR-1

There's multiple fusible links so I seriously doubt that it's fusible link related. Do you have another battery? Headlamps - stop & tails don't work either?

hcbph

To build on what's been said: Assuming the battery is good this is what I'd do if it was mine (based on an 86).

Try the power seats and see if they move. They are as far as I know powered all the time, same with the power locks. Do they work? Same thing with the interior lights, they should work without a key in the ignition, do they work? Headlights too.
There are multiple fusible links below the battery, unless that stud is bad something should work. I'd check the fuse block for power and try to ohm the main cables to insure they aren't burnt through somewhere.

If that all checks out but you have no power anywhere then you come down to one typical common point of failure IMO, the negative battery cable. If it fails, no matter what else is going on, no way to get back to the battery - in effect a dead vehicle. This is assuming the battery is good and everything is dead. I ruled out the positive cable because even if the starter end is bad the pigtail going to the stud used by the fusible links comes off a different spot on the cable. If the positive cable was burnt through it should throw a lot of sparks and smoke and kill the battery in short order if the car doesn't burn up first.

One quick way to see if it's the negative cable: pull the negative cable off the battery, put a 7/16" bolt in the battery and use something like a jumper cable and connect from the alternator bracket to that bolt on the battery and see if anything works now.

Just some thoughts. Good luck.

PS I have seen a lock washer on the bolt holding the negative cable onto the engine block break and drop off and nothing worked in the vehicle because no current was passing due to a 'bad ground'.

ddahlgren

Per your thoughts a simple test might be do a voltage test between Batt+ and chassis key on and key off to see if ground is marginal. Will give seats and door locks a try in the morning as pitch black dark now and car outside.

don hall

Verify one simple condition: ensure the battery cables are connected tightly.

A semi-loose connection like a cable bolt cross-threaded making it feel secure when it is not.
The battery connection must be tight.

C409

..... Check the battery voltage with something turned on like the headlights ... if the voltage drops like a rock , buy a new battery ... if the voltage holds , get your jumper cables out and hook one of them to the negative terminal of the battery and find a clean place on the engine for the other end and give that a whirl .....

don hall

Unfortunately, he can't turn any thing on now.

ddahlgren

Tightened he cables until I was getting nervous they would strip out cranked fine all worked. Did not start and battery somewhat low but got thinking about it the gauge does not actually read direct battery voltage so when think it is charging it might not be a false impression reading some other location in the harness. Has old gas so a bit fussy came close several times. Will charge again tomorrow and see what happens.

hcbph

So if I'm reading the comment correctly, the car now turned over at a minimum. Based on that (assuming it's correct), check your fluid level in the battery, charge it up and try again. My battery charger has an indicator when it's at full charge and if there's a problem with the battery. If yours looks questionable, have a pro shop check it out.

Now you could have other issues but deal with them one at a time to avoid confusion.

ddahlgren

I am thinking starting running and burn the old gas out the first start and just drive easy doing it with around town errands. The battery is only 2 years old but has been run down a couple times due to not driving the car with health problems that are sort of being addressed. It has never been frozen or anything crazy but has been to 10 volts or so no load. It is a 5 year battery so would think not timed out yet.

WVZR-1

If the battery is only 24 months on a 60 month warranty, it would likely be a no charge or very little prorate to replace it if bad. The abuse you mention - maybe just return it to where purchased, let them load test it and do whatever!!

Gibbles

First thing is to charge the battery just in case, even tho it shows 12v it could still be dead.

Next is the battery checks out is to check fuses, then start wire traces.

An old jumper cable can be pretty handy to verify grounds, and if you have the space, run power to the starter.

hcbph

I've give a little battery story. Several years ago I had a less than year old Diehard Gold in my T-Bird. I was working out of town at the time and came back after a month, dead as a door nail. Charged it but showed bad so exchanged it. Hooked it all up, drove it and went back out of town for a couple of months on the same job. Came back, same thing. Exchanged it again and Sears didn't have any explanation as this one also showed bad doing their testing. Went back out of town but this time unhooked the battery, came back and all was good. Finally tracked it down to the light in the glove-box, the lever that shut off the light was bad and left the light on which ultimately ran the battery down. Researching it later, found something on a battery website that basically said if a battery was run down to virtually dead, something like polarity reversal was possible in the battery regardless of condition. I unhooked that light and all was good from then on.

I don't know if that description is 100% accurate but it something on that order when a battery is run down completely, bad things can happen to a battery, even if it's new.

ddahlgren

The battery has never been below around 10 volts it is like it just does not have the AH or only gets a surface charge. Going to put it back on charger now for a couple hours at 15 amps and see what happens. IF starts right up will put a volt meter between battery and chassis running and off to see what that offers. Wait a day or so and see if it starts. When this first started happening charged the battery and checked standby drain and around 30ma. It is a NAPA battery and the second one in around 6 years. I am questioning if the NAPA batteries are just junk.

don hall

Suggest you research portable battery packs.
Sample: https://www.walmart.com/c/kp/battery-jump-starter-packs

Every motorist should have one, or two. They provide security, a 12V source for testing and jumping, etc.

Re your Napa battery. Napa doesn't make a battery. It is more likely made by Johnson Controls, as are many batteries. If it has failed, that happens, especially to batteries not maintained properly.

WVZR-1

If it's a NAPA battery you just take it to NAPA and let them do the proper charge, load test, replace or prorate as required! You could struggle with this battery/car for days or weeks. You can't do any proper diagnostics on the car/charging system without having a "known good battery".

NAPA junk? I don't think you can actually assume that yet! Your earlier 30mA parasitic was certainly considered very good I'd think but you can't actually determine what's up now with what you've got.

Back at #2 I asked if you had headlamps, stops & tails. If you had those then that would have answered your initial question.

ddahlgren

I did not have anything then and all came back when I serious cranked on battery bolts. Steel bolts lead threads and not many of them did not want to get crazy.

WVZR-1

Very dependent upon the fabrication of your cables I'd say that either the ring terminal in some S/T cables in the S/T protector is corroded or the actual cable is deteriorated. Snap out the battery bolt and clean inside of the cable where the bolt actually compresses the ring terminal to the battery, that could also be an issue that's creating a non charging issue. Depending upon the cable construction there are replacement S/T bolts available.