RODS63

Had a bad battery bought a new one. The battery is fully charged, when I open the door the interior lights will not operate nor will the car start, won't even turn over. If I hook up a battery charger the interior lights will operate and attempted to start the car, I get a slight whine from the starter but nothing close to even cranking over. A little bit puzzled, with a good battery I should at least get the interior lights to operate but they will only work when I hook the battery charger. Any suggestions ! If I have a bad ground somewhere would it make a difference whether the charger is hooked up or not ?

AZDoug

Dirty battery cables at the posts, or corroded cables internally.

Clean the insides of the lead cable end connectors with a pocket knife and put them back on the posts, first, before you buy new cables

Doug

Gary's '66

Sounds like the "Large Red Wire" syndrome. Check the fuse box and large red wire where it connects to the firewall for corrosion.

Gary

Frankie the Fink

Put a meter across the battery while someone cranks the car. If the voltage doesn't drop down to 9-10V you have corrosion or bad wiring; if it drops below that the battery is dead. The bulkhead connectors discussed above are here...

Typical green corrosion is shown in the second picture. If you disconnect the connectors to check them be damned careful when depressing the locking clips. If they are original and brittle the buggers will snap off as shown in the second picture (ask me how I know)...

RODS63

Thanks, I did manage to get the connectors off with out breaking them, they appear good in shape. I can't even put a meter across as the car will not crank at all, it's a new battery and when I hook up to a charger it shows full, my old battery was not holding a charge and I was just getting the car out after a winter sleep and I was having same problem with old battery, so I figured new battery would solve the problem it appears it may be a wiring/ground issue somewhere, although it's odd if hook up the battery charger I do get the interior lights to work, so I am getting throughput of power somehow.

RODS63

I will check and re-post thanks !

RODS63

Thanks Doug, the cable ends are in good shape and they had no corrosion, now the cable's themselves are old so I start tracing from there.

corvetteed

Also, take a look under the plastic coating on the cables. Peel back some of it to see if they are corrosion free. Even a slight amount of corrosion there will cause the symptoms you're describing.

rtruman

68hemi

Check this thread from last week for all of the possibilities.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...n-t-start.html

RODS63

Got it figured out, Thanks Gary- Large red wire, bad ground, loose connection at starter- All good now.

Frankie the Fink

You still should have done the meter test... A battery charger indicates if a battery is accepting a charge, not how it acts under load. Even if a car isn't cranking you may see the voltage drop to the 2-3V range indicating a dead cell or the like. I don't ask people to do frivolous tests.

But, glad its fixed - electrical problems are the worst.

ejboyd5

Intermittent electrical problems are the worst.

Frankie the Fink

That goes without saying, so I didn't...

Blk63Vette

I gave up on my original wiring harness that had no less than 12 spliced in it (three kill switches). I gave up and rewired the whole car. What a difference that made.

If its original I would consider replacing it. Not as bad as what you might think.

Gary's '66

Even without all the splices you've mentioned, it's still a 50 year old harness! Given that fact, PLUS all the heat it's received during that time, I would (and have) replace it as well.

Gary