engine and drivetrain complete electrical loss... help!

[lazerfred]

Hi all --

I've had a bit of a disaster with my 72. My car currently is showing zero electrical activity when I turn the key; no starter, no clicking, no lights, no accessories.

So backing up a bit; I've been having an on-going nightmare with my electrical and charging systems. I few months back I was helped immeasurably by a BMW 2002 FAQ member who sent me his old alternatator and wiring harness... which helped solved my persistent "L" for "Lectric" light problems.

Anyway, over the past few days I've noticed that my stereo would cut out for a half second at a time; it would just lose power. Now I think I was losing power throughout the whole car, but this just happened to be the only accessory that was on at the time.

So today I got into the car and went to start it up. The engine cranked but it didn't quite start and when I went to do it again, nothing happened. No clicking of the solenoid, and now no accessories lit up, nothing.

I checked the fuses, they all seem fine. I put a charger on it for an hour (it's a 200 amp charger so should be plenty to even start the engine), but zero happened.

As an FYI, I had our friendly North Bend Washington 02 mechanic (he of the 25 '02s in his driveway) replace my points with a petronix set up about two years ago.

Does anyone have any idea what is going on? Did my ignition die? The car is sitting 30 miles away in my brother's driveway, so I need to be fully armed when I head back up there to diagnose and hopefully fix; so if people have ideas, please be super specific for what I should bring and do because I have to borrow a vehicle to get back up there!!!

I'm planning on heading back up there on Wednesday....

Thanks for any ideas!

[jgerry2002]

Check your battery terminals.... seriously.

Had a friends car that you'd turn the key and nothing... we moved the terminals after fiddling with everything else... and everything worked again.

Its easy to build up corrosion between the posts and the terminals. I'd replace all of that stuff.

[c.d.iesel]

lousy wiring to the starter motor, battery,

and ground wires from block - battery - to body

[02Les]

+1 for the battery, +/- connections to it or negative/earth lead from the battery, if you have lost everything. Remove terminals, clean them up & the battery posts and retry. Put a little petroleom jelly on the posts when you reconnect to help stop future gunk build ups.

[esty]

the same thing happened to me a year or so ago, after a $100 tow home, it was the neg poor battery cable connection at the motor

[Adictiverx]

Ignition switch and/or wiring contacts may be loose/broken.

Thats my guess