No power

live4theking

Old Man with a Hat
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Location
Rockland; Venango County Pennsylvania
68 New Yorker

My latest challenge is that once I got all of the AC stuff installed I wanted to pull the old girl outside. Slide behind the wheel put the key in the ignition and as soon as turn it. One loud click and no power inside - nothing, no dome light, headlights...

I've got power to the firewall. I pulled the bulkhead connector and I have power on J. Looking at the wiring diagram power goes to a circuit breaker for the accessories (kind of on the side) and then to the ammeter. It doesn't look like the circuit breaker could be the problem so, do I dig into the ammeter this afternoon?

Thanks for any guidance.
 
First, I am sure that others are more experienced with electrical systems and may be able to offer better advise.

Do you have sufficient power at ALL of the bulk head connectors? Have you tried turning the key on and jumping the starter relay/solenoid to make sure you have power to the relay? Check your battery terminal connections and all connections from the battery to the bulkhead after you make sure that the battery is fully charged before you start anything else. This condition, in my experience is usually related to a bad connection. The fact that the headlights do not work tells me it is a power issue between the battery and the bulkhead since the headlights work independent of the ignition circuit. It could be the fusible link has failed. Good luck.
 
Good start! No pun intended...
 
One loud click and then no power on anything, sounds like a bad connection at the battery. Clean and tighten both cables and try again.
 
Check both ends of the the ground cable to the battery. Sometime the the other end of the ground cable going to the engine block is corroded or loose. Also check all the cables going to the starter are tight. Check the starter relay wires on the firewall for tightness/corrosion.
 
Battery terminals. Clean and tighten. Summer is the season for this failure. Mathilda did this 10 days ago.
 
Well, I've went back to the basics as you all suggested. The battery has been on the charger on a 2AMP charge for about 2 hours. I'll most likely leave it there till morning.

The negative cable is new and I've cleaned up the positive. I've cleaned all of the terminals on the starter relay.

I'll see what happens tomorrow morning. I'm even more glad now that I took tomorrow off.
 
Thanks for sending me back to the basics.

After about a 14 hour charge on the battery she fired right up. I ran it down the lane and back about a mile through the woods just because. The kids will help me wash it this afternoon and I'll take it over for inspection on Wednesday.

Everything holds up we will be heading for Carlisle next Friday.
 
I'm glad you got her back up again.

Sometimes the basic stuff will shut you down...no rhyme or reason.
 
Thanks for sending me back to the basics.

After about a 14 hour charge on the battery she fired right up. I ran it down the lane and back about a mile through the woods just because. The kids will help me wash it this afternoon and I'll take it over for inspection on Wednesday.

Everything holds up we will be heading for Carlisle next Friday.

Be sure those connections are clean and tight.
 
Well this ugly little problem resurfaced Saturday evening at Carlisle. Right now it is in a hard broken situation instead of intermittent so it should be easier to find where I loose power at. Hopefully I'll be able to get to looking at it sometime this week.

Stay tuned.
 
FWIW, I had a similar issue with my black 2DHT. Started and ran fine most of the time. Then started to stall randomly, nothing at key, etc.

In the end it was the posts on the ammeter itself. There was intermittent continuity between them. I took a pair of needlenose pliers and twisted on both studs.

Continuity restored.

Could be enough temperature cycling and vibration to create the same issue for you.

Hope the input helps.

John
 
can I borrow this post please?

I went to bump over the motor on this car, and got 0 action with the key. no problem I said, ill just jumper wire over to SOL terminal with +12v on the starter relay. well I still got nothing. should that have bumped the starter? I know this isn't a ferd starting it with a screwdriver,, but I thought this would work the same?
 
Well, I dove into the dash this afternoon. Once I had it apart where I could access the back of the amp gauge I tooked the battery back up and grabbed the test light. Power on the red was good. initially nothing on the black/red. After poking at it a few times there was power and the dome light was on. Unhooked the battery and continued to pull the instrument cluster out the rest of the way.

Once I got it out I found that the inner nut on both post of the amp gauge were loose. I tightened those and checked for continuity, checked good. So, then I hooked it up to the amp gauge and the blower motor up to the battery and the gauge responded to that as well.

Inside the dash I bolted the two amp gauge wires together, connected the power and moved the harnesses around in an attempt to cause the open. Apparently the harness are fine because I could cause a lose of power.

Now, I get to put it all back together. Anyone with small hands want to come help?
 
can I borrow this post please?

I went to bump over the motor on this car, and got 0 action with the key. no problem I said, ill just jumper wire over to SOL terminal with +12v on the starter relay. well I still got nothing. should that have bumped the starter? I know this isn't a ferd starting it with a screwdriver,, but I thought this would work the same?

It should've worked. Do you have power at the relay? Do you have power at the starter?
 
Sometime ...,,, Well maybe a tad more than sometimes the main power connection at the bulkhead connection will be / get corroded if not have an outright melt down. you can have power to one side but not the other. just a good thing to check out !!

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