complete electrical failure

[spfan]

well, there's no electrical section, so here goes....

so i go to crank the car about an hour ago... i hear about two revolutions of the crank and then completely dead. no lights. no buzzing (door open, key in ignition), no dash lights. nothing.

now, small background. my car, years ago, used to do something i call a "brown out". when i would try to crank, almost all the electrical power died. just enough to dimly light the interior lights and dash lights. i would scrub the battery terminals really good with steel wool and this would usually fix the problem. and when this happened, it was immediately upon turning the key, no cranking.

but this is different. completely dead. no lights at all. and it cranked for a second or so before it died.

i checked the voltage at the battery terminals, using two multimeters. and it's good. just to be sure, i put the trickle charger on it to sit overnight. i checked the 15A engine fuse in the fuse block by the driver's left knee. it's good. i checked the battery fuse and the two alternator fuses under the hood. they're good. i consulted the manual. "Charging System - Troubleshooting" and then it shows a two page circuit diagram. thanks a-holes.

anybody have any ideas/suggestions whatsoever?

[bert0mac]

my old stealth did that. turned out the battery lead wasnt on securely enough

[spfan]

these are new terminal cables on a fairly new battery. they are on there tight. nut and bolt practically clamp them onto the battery terminal.

i also removed the cables from the battery for a couple minutes, then reattached them. nothing.

[lDoomZdaYl]

would love to help you but im always up to my neck with electrical problems. I can turn my radio on without the car being on lol

[Andr3w]

It seems like i had the same problem. What seemed to be my fix was put an additional ground from the negative terminal to the chassis.

Andrew

[nobs]

Similar issue happened to me with an relatively new Optima red top.

Try hooking up to a charger than has a high amperage setting
for cranking. If you still have no power, we can at least eliminate
the battery.

Grounding the lead terminal might help also.

Lates,
Nobs

[Gray Haze]

Fuseable link 120A in underhood fuse box. Is it still good? Are its terminals in the box coroded?

[spfan]

i'll have to check the fusible links. i never knew about them until last night, when i was looking through the manual. i'll have to look again and see where they are. any others i should check other than that one?

[spfan]

i just checked the 120A fusible link. it's good. i even pulled it out and did a continuity test on it to be sure. all the fuses under the hood look good that i could find. are there any up near the battery? do batteries have an internal fuse of sorts?

also, the trickle charger says the battery is fully charged. but still no power at all, no interior lights, etc. even with the trickle charger still hooked up. you'd think that the small charger would be enough to light up a few light bulbs.

[beckerb]

Originally Posted by spfan

i just checked the 120A fusible link. it's good. i even pulled it out and did a continuity test on it to be sure. all the fuses under the hood look good that i could find. are there any up near the battery? do batteries have an internal fuse of sorts?

Take you meter and check for voltage on the fuses under the hood. The 120amp fuse provides power to everything in the car according to the the circuit diagram in volume 2 of the manual. That is the only common point to the power distribution. It is fed with a "Wine red wire that connects directly to the battery. On the positive side of the battery you have two connections. One goes directly to the starter and the other is the wire I am talking about.

You say the fuse is good but did you test for voltage where it plugs in ? It is a direct wire from the battery terminal to that fuse. If you dont have power there then either the wire or the connector is bad. You should be able to trace it from the battery down the harness to the fuse box....