Corv1969

Hi,

This evening I took my '69 Corvette for a ride and when I parked it, it wouldn't start again.

No power, no electricity when turning the ignition. No lights, radio or dashboard lights.

The car is a manual without airco, it has an electronic ignition instead of the original one.

Battery is still working, voltage is 13.7V. When checking the battery I saw there was a rather thin loose cable which seemed to be connected to the negative pole, together with the main black one. Could this be the problem? (I don't know if this could cause the no power problem). I don't know if it was connected before.

There's also an extra switch with a separate fuse to disconnect the battery but nothing wrong with this at first sight.

Any ideas? :-)

Thanks!

Metalhead140

It has to be a main battery connection issue. Did you try removing and refitting the terminals? Put the multimeter across the wires from the battery and check you have voltage there. If that's all good, put the car on stands and check you have voltage from the terminal where the heavy wire connects to the starter to the bolt where the battery earth is bolted to the chassis. Assuming that's all good, move the negative terminal of the multimeter and check each side of the engine ground strap. All still being well, you now need to check the hot wires from the starter that feed the fuse box etc - you may have blown a fusible link(s). Someone more familiar with the wiring in the older cars ought to be able to help you with specifics if it gets to that point.

TimAT

Not much to go wrong on a 69. Battery power to the starter solenoid, red wire from there to the horn relay. Everything feeds off the horn relay on the left inner fender. There are a pair of fuse links just above the starter, one at the horn relay and one next to the wiper motor.

TimAT

And a thought-- reach down under the master cylinder to the bulkhead connector- give it a good shake. I've seen that connector get loose/dirty and be intermittent.

mchar

Loose strap, bad ground?

Corv1969

Thanks already for these replies! I will try these the next days.

Here you can find an image of the loose cable I was talking about. Could this be part of the problem? No idea if it was connected before.

http://imgur.com/One75Ch

Saddlehorn

Same thing happened to me this past weekend on my '73. Found the battery terminal bolts were vibrating loose and the battery hold down bracket was not secure. PO had put in a jury rigged hold down bracket and it wasn't tight on the battery case. Replaced the terminal bolts and the battery hold down bracket and all is back to normal. May not be your cause, but worth checking. Good luck.

Corv1969

Nope, battery connections seem to be secured properly. Thanks for replying!

Thing is, after I disconnect the battery and then connect it again, the radio cd player ejects the cd but nothing happens afterwards, no display or power on the radio neither.

bazza77

that broken wire seems to be going toward the back so I doubt it has anything to do with not starting the engine. Looks like its been broken for a while as well. I would trace it and see what's on the end though.

bazza77

I had the radio thing happen to me , it turned out to be a dirty connection just letting enough power through ,as mentioned before check all connections , take them off and clean up the contact areas with some sand paper or wire brush or whatever it takes to get them shiny again . Also a dirty electrical connection usually gets hot .

TimAT

There sure is a lot going on in that picture for a 69. The only thing I have in the battery compartment on mine is the 2 battery cables, 1 wire to the light in the center and the fiber optic lines from the rear lights.

Gunfighter13

My guess, fuse links at starter

Corv1969

Problem solved by using the multi voltage/ampere meter: it appreared to be the switch to disconnect the battery... although it seemed alright looking at the connections it didn't work anymore!

Thanks all for your replies!

Corcerning the loose wire, it indeed seems to be there lying around for some time!