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Stumped on an intermittent electrical issue that kills power
I drove the car two weeks ago, had snow in North Texas and sat in garage on battery tender for 2weeks, now zero electricals when I turn the key (.
Troubleshooting.... have 13 volts (was on battery tender) at the battery and terminals, grounds look tight, no burned wires, only power to headlights, brake lights, turn signal on driver's side, power to Alternator and power to starter but no power to ignition switch.
Checked fuses w/ tester and have power to headlights, /brakes light and nothing elsewhere. While under the dash in deep thought contorted like a pretzel contemplating my next move, my electric fans turn on and dash lights up (had the key on). I push in the clutch and she fires right up. Check everything and now have full power at every circuit and ignition switch.
I jiggled wires on the fuse panel (rewired 10yrs ago) just to be sure and no change....I'm thinking a ground issue but everything feels tight.
Last edited by Corey_68; Feb 22, 2026 at 04:56 PM.
Will check, I will have to first find the location where the horn relay was moved to during the rewire and no longer under the hood where is was originally mounted. Not sight of OEM silver relay, traced horn wires and both yet.
Last edited by Corey_68; Feb 22, 2026 at 05:44 PM.
Do you have a battery disconnect switch or device? Just yesterday took a run to the parts store and when I went to leave - no power to ignition, everything seemed to have power. Found that the *** had backed off on the battery disconnect to not allow full power , think of loose battery cable, same thing only the disconnect was on the ground side.
A quick turn to retighten and off I was. As soon as I got home that shut off switch went immediately into the junk drawer.
Good tip is to carry a modern jump box, I keep a NOCO with me just in case. Much less hassle than jumper cables or tow truck.
I do, that was my immediate thought was it was not screwed down tight.I checked **** was tight, no change, removed the **** and hooked direct to terminal and still nothing. When I have time, I’m going to go over all the grounds again. It’s just bizarre that it is intermittent without touching anything.
Have you taken a peek at your fusible links down by the starter motor. If something was shorted then they would be blown and that would keep power from getting to the horn relay. All you do is test them for continuity, if they pass they are good and if not you replace them.
Always solder the new fusible links into the wiring harness and I have purchased replacement resistive wire from Amazon and NAPA.
The Power Probe is on sale at Harbor Freight for the "inside track club" members. The Power probe is one of the handiest tools when working on the electrical system on a Corvette. This tool is so handy that I actually have two of them, on a Corvette they are worth their weight in gold.... They allow you to test and find issues faster on a car.
Yea I noticed the plastic wire sheath was partially melted so I cut and after peeling it back and the looks ok. I have those 3 wires, red power wire, small black w/ ring terminal , I assume starter solenoid, (that I traced to the top of the transmission that I cannot see its connection without pulling the transmission) and large black wire I assume a ground).
The only way to know for sure they are good is to measure the continuity through the fusible links. I have seen plenty of burnt fusible links that still had the rubber cover on them.
When replacing them be sure to solder them into the circuit. Any other method might affect the ability of the link to protect the circuit.
When I had a part fail it blew the fuses and burnt the fusible links down by the starter motor. The power was not at the horn relay like it is supposed to be which pointed at the fusible links were likely the cause.
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Stumped on an intermittent electrical issue that kills power
