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Do you have power at the ignition switch? Yes? Fusible link is intact. Does it crank when the starter relay is jumped? Yes or no?
Electrical issues? NOW WITH PICTURES AND INFO
- Thread starter northeastmoparnet
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Yes power at ignition switch. Yes fusible link is intact. Just jumped starter relay Got clicking at the new mini starter and smoke at the grounds which go to the headlight on that side and the side marker light. ??
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Replace the negative battery cable no matter what is looks like then.
I also just noticed the smaller ground from the battery seems pulled out of the battery connector a tad but it does seem tight in that I cannot pull it out. Maybe that wire is corroded Inside where I cannot see. When I did this car in 2007 I know I bought brand new NOS positive and negative cables?
OK I will order one and do that because this has to be something stupid. I will let you know after. Hey, thanks much man. Have a great Christmas.
Must be an echo in the room.
Post 9 you said it was perfect.
WAS THIS TEST PERFORMED.
Post 9 I meant it appeared to be in perfect condition. That's all? With the help of everyone on here, I did do some of the recommendations and we appear to be narrowing down the issues here. I have a power probe tool I bought a couple years ago but never used it to test with. I also have stated and will continue to state that 12v dc electrical is not my strong suit when it comes to chasing thiings that go wrong. I do know that the battery cables when installed in my restoration in 2007 were brand new and they were not cheap aftermarket, and have been fine all along. I am thinking that the small ground wire to the radiator support panel looks like iut might possibly be **** up inside the strands on the battery connection. I can see a little bit of the strands showing where they enter the lead which makes me realize that this could be a weak point. So I did order a new negative cable which I will replace. If that does not work, I will then start doing some resistance testing. I used my power probe today a little. I got 12.5 volts across the battery and I got a call into power probe to ask a question. I hooked the battery up, left the key off. Jumnped a scewdriver across the sart relay and I got the same clicking at the starter and then smoking wires in the same spot. So, I am thinking the power being sent to the starter is being channeled to what everyone is calling a short to ground. Or, it may be that battery cable which I will replace. I was going to disconnect my alternator and do this again to see if the alternator maybe is bad also. But slow and steady wins the race.
No, but I will do it tomorrow. So basically I will be creating another ground with the battery cables, correct?
The problem is simple. It is between the negative battery post and the engine. The small wire came loose in the connection at the terminal because of heat due to the excessive draw. Remove the cable from the block and clean it. Check for resistance between the block terminal and the battery terminal. The should be no resistance.
Why do you keep hooking up the battery and trying to start the car without doing what has been recommended? Are you trying to burn the thing up? Hope you at least pushed it outside....
Jeff Erwin
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I had a similar problem several years ago in my 71 charger, except it was under the dash. Turned out to be my fault. I started chasing burnt wires, thinking I would just remove and replace any semi-melted wire. After several hours of this I realized I was going to be chasing electrical gremlins as long as I owned the car as there was no way to really tell where wires melted. I ended up rewiring the entire car bumper to bumper. Used an American Autowire harness. It was not any where near as hard as I thought, but it did take me about 100 hours of work to complete as I crimped and soldered every connection. I finally got it all done and EVERYTHING worked, even a couple of things that never worked before. Well worth the effort.
OK. I removed the negative battery cable and checked ohms resistance from the end connector to the battery lug and got 0 resistance. I then did the same thing with the smaller negative cable which goes toi the radiator core and tested it from its end to the batter lug again with 0 ohms of resistance, so I am not sure a new negative battery cable will do anything to solve this issue? Unless that resistance builds when I try and start the car?
Not making sense. Where was the negative attached to on the motor. Post some pictures of the cable ends and engine attachment point.
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You need to do a voltage drop test while under load. Connect one lead of your VOM set to DC volts to the engine block and the other lead to the battery negative post, not the clamp. I would disconnect the smaller battery cable to the core support for further testing to prevent further damage to the forward lighting harness. Operate the starter by jumping the starter relay only, leave the ignition off. What is the voltage drop shown while under load?
Thank you . True.
I took the negative battery cable out of the car. Layed it on a bench and set my ohm meter 0. Took the two probes and touched each end of the cable and the result was 0 ohms of resistance? I did the same thing with the attached radiator support ground wire which is part of the negative battery cable in 1970. It also reads 0 ohms of resistance? So I am trying hard to figure out where the high resistance is? I have removed the engine block bolt in the front of the head and the captured nut in the radiator support was also sanded clean, even though both were nice and clean. So I am actually doing what people here are talking about, but not getting anywhere?
LowBikeMike
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Please do the test recommended in post #36. Cables can ohm good but got to crap under load.
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