No electricity dead dead Help!
Thread Starter
Melting Slicks
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 2,512
Likes: 49
From: Franklin IN
No electricity dead dead Help!
My buddy has a 63 and we have been chasing an intermittent problem. For no reason at all when running the car will suddenly cut out everything goes dead. No lights no engine no radio no nothing! Pull over wait anywhere from 2-5 minutes and it will start. He called me and now it is dead in his garage. By tonight the power could be back who knows.
He has replaced the battery which was going bad. He cleaned and checked the terminals on the cables. We have ruled out everthing inside the car because other things would work. The only central point I can think of is the large terminal on the starter solonoid.
Could a bad solonoid/starter be causing this kind of problem?
He has replaced the battery which was going bad. He cleaned and checked the terminals on the cables. We have ruled out everthing inside the car because other things would work. The only central point I can think of is the large terminal on the starter solonoid.
Could a bad solonoid/starter be causing this kind of problem?
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 9,192
Likes: 27
From: Boca Raton Florida
No, the solenoid will not be bad and cause this. Places to check/verify;
Battery cables, both sides. Ground cable to frame, Battery cable to starter (the lug on the soleniod), The wire from the Big Term on the solenoid to wire harness (this is the one that feeds everything but the starter), Fuse Block to firewall.
With the car running, check all the fuses, one clip might be flakey and losing contact now and then.
If the car is still dead, before wiggling/testing anything, stick a test light on the Big lug on the starter, should light up. If it does and it still won't turn over the problem is further between the starter and wire harnes
Battery cables, both sides. Ground cable to frame, Battery cable to starter (the lug on the soleniod), The wire from the Big Term on the solenoid to wire harness (this is the one that feeds everything but the starter), Fuse Block to firewall.
With the car running, check all the fuses, one clip might be flakey and losing contact now and then.
If the car is still dead, before wiggling/testing anything, stick a test light on the Big lug on the starter, should light up. If it does and it still won't turn over the problem is further between the starter and wire harnes
Racer
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 449
Likes: 0
From: Boulder CO
Sounds like a ground fault somewhere. A wire with either a loose connection is intermittently coming shorting. Or, a wire with insulation that has either rubbed off or burned off and it's grounding itself somewhere. A good place to start is the fusible link at the starter. How do I know this? Just went through a similar problem! Look for any loose wires that have the potential for moving and then isolate them. I've been going through my car with heat tape and tie wires to secure everything.
