I had a funny and slightly embarassing incident a week ago. My cousin has a 1970 Chevy Malibu ragtop that I replaced the engine in 14-15 yrs ago. It lives in a garage and only comes out for summer drives, probably only about 1000 miles on the rebuilt engine. So my Cuz asked me to come over to see and fix a no-start condition.
IT had a fresh battery fully charged to about 12.7 volts. A new starter as well, but no sign of response with a turn of the key. So we hemmed and hawed over it, I checked the fuse box the fuses had corrosion and only showed a bit over 8 volts...? Even w/ a fully charged newer battery the car was electrically dead.
![:angry: :angry:](/media/kunena/emoticons/angry.png)
The battery terminals looked perfect batt. cables were excellent too. No corrosion at all... Tried direct hot wiring the starter solonoid, still nothing. Thinking it was a bad starter or solonoid, we proceeded to spend several hours pulling the header and starter, then connecting the solonoid hot terminal direct and grounding the case- and click goes the solonoid!
Ok so we reinstall starter and header after I scrupulously cleaned the block metal for a good ground to the starter...and AGAIN nothing from the solonoid or starter. Then- I noticed a short thin stud at the front of the starter winding case. On a hunch I had my Cuz feed a 12 guage wire w/ alligator clips on it down to me. I clipped on to the thin stud and had Cuz ground the other end to batt. neg. terminal--and CLICK goes the starter solonoid!!
So- I removed the batt. neg cable from the battery terminal and cleaned it even though it looked fine. Re-connected it and it cranked and started!
![;) ;)](/media/kunena/emoticons/wink.png)
I tell ya the battery posts and cables looked PERFECT, but there was enough oxidation on the neg. post and ground cable terminal to cause a 4 volt voltage drop!
So I got to learn about bad grounds and re-learned about voltage Drops all over again. Boy did we have a good laugh over this, and my cuz and wife fed me a real nice steak dinner for resuscitating the Cruiser! How to turn a 5 min. job into a full afternoon of wrenching!!
Dr Jacobs said in his book- "By 4 to 1 most electrical problems are caused by bad Grounds."
amen!
Tracy G