electrical and ignition Good Battery, No Juice

[Joesprocket]

Hey guys, this is my first trouble shoot topic I've posted (I've been extremely lucky so far since purchase in July).  My issue is electrical related .

 

Went to start the car the other day (morning, chilly 45F) turn the key and nothing. No dash lights, no head lights, no starter clicking.  Had a neighbor come over for a jump and once we hooked up, turned the key and still no juice (head lamps, dash lights, starter, everything)  after a few minutes just thinking it through I tried a last ditch attempt while the cars are still hooked up and the car fired up.  Made it to work but that evening when i came back out again; same deal with no juice.

 

I took the battery out (re-located to trunk by PO) and took it to Advance Auto for a health check.  That battery proved OK.  Wasnt a full charge, more like 75% but all cells were good.  I had them put it on a slow charge until full and I'm going to hook it up to the car tomorrow to see what happens.

 

If it turns out to not be battery related, any thoughts on what this could be?  Fuse?  Wiring? I don't mind hunting down the problem but, outside of the battery, I'm not sure where to start.

 

Feel free to ask questions if I'm leaving anything out.   Any help is appreciated.

 

Joe

[Hans]

First to check is all the major battery cable connections. Remove battery wires, then remove and clean ground cable in trunk, and hot cable where it attaches to starter. Clean battery posts and clamps. A poor connection can suddenly fail. You need bare metal touching.

[BillWilliams]

Also, ground wires to and/or from battery should be the same "size" as the positive wires.

[OriginalOwner]

I once had an "invisible" slime buildup on the positive battery terminal.  Removing the terminal and cleaning everything thoroughly solved the problem.

 

 

Cheers,

 

Carl

[allbim]

Also check the ground cable/strap to the engine.

[Joesprocket]

Outside of a wire brush what are people most comfortable using in cleaning a battery?

[Hans]

Cleaning the terminals or the whole battery? For terminals, wire brush or emery paper is fine, but little gizmo from auto parts store with - how to put it - female brush on one end to do terminal post, and male end to do inside cable fitting, works best.

[M3M3]

Cleaning the terminals or the whole battery? For terminals, wire brush or emery paper is fine, but little gizmo from auto parts store with - how to put it - female brush on one end to do terminal post, and male end to do inside cable fitting, works best.

this!  tool is cheap, works great and you will use it many times.  should be in every car nuts toolbox.

[Joesprocket]

Awesome, hope this tool and a good cleaning does the trick. Looks like water and baking soda make a good paste to cleanup residue. The battery def needs a cleaning.

[AceAndrew]

As mentioned check all the grounds (engine to chassis, alternator to cylinder head), by checking use a voltemeter to check resistence from one end of the wire to the other.  Many aging grounds might look ok but still be on their last legs

 

  While you're trying to turn it on, have someone checking the ground wire running from the alternator to the regulator.  If the engine grounds are bad it will try to ground through that wire and subsequently begin to heat up and melt the surrounding wires.  Learned this one the hard way.

[Hans]

Those cleaning gizmos do a nice job on copper plumbing pipe. You should also look at condition of large cables - depending on when the battery relocation was done. 40 year old copper cables can get corroded inside, and are cheap to replace with universal cables from auto parts store.

[Joesprocket]

Alright - I cleaned up the battery, terminals and grounds tonight with still no juice (no lights, starter click, anything. Popped the hood and looked around for anything that looked out of place. Didnt see anyhting. Checked a few wires here and there, turned the key still nothing. 

 

Next Inspected the wires on the back of the alternator, looked ok, made sure everything was secure.  Turned the key and there was power - car fired right up.

 

here's a few pics...anything look out of place to your trained eyes.

 

 

[Hans]

That looks like a later model alternator, and I'm puzzled by that black plug. Could be different wiring run for hot cables. That said, disconnect lead from battery, and clean up those hot wire (the big ones) fittings on the back of the alternator.

[Joesprocket]

Yeah, I should clarify. This is in a late model 76. Cannot say for sure if it's the orig alt.

[allbim]

The alternator is not what keeps electricity from flowing from the battery to the car. Do you have a ground strap or cable connecting the engine to the chassis, fender etc? Check the connection at both ends of that.