Have battery power, no start February 09, 2016, 07:41:49 PM Ok, I thought I had finally gotten all of the issues on my '85 figured out. That is until today. When I went out this evening and tried to start it the starter began to turn over but then it died. Every time I turned the key nothing happened. The digital speedometer is even dark. I don't hear the fuel pump prime itself either. The dome light and key-in-ignition chime work, but the dome light gets really dim when I turn the key to the on position. I thought maybe the starter solenoid was just stuck, so I tapped on it with a wrench a little and nothing happened. Could it be a fuse? I don't know what all else is involved. Quote Selected
Have battery power, no start Reply #1 – February 09, 2016, 08:56:36 PM So I went out to check the battery voltage which turned out to be 12.6 volts and thought I'd try to see if I had headlights. I turned the switch on and nothing happened. I shut the door and opened it again. The headlights, dashlights, and dome light all came on. So I tried starting it again. This time it started right up. I shut it off and re-started it. Fired right up. I'm not sure what is going on (i'm not very good with electrical systems). From what I do know it sounds like a loose ground or something. A friend of mine said it might be the headlight switch is loose, does this seem logical? Quote Selected
Have battery power, no start Reply #2 – February 09, 2016, 10:29:17 PM Make sure the studs are tight on your starter solenoid. All the power that comes into the car does so through the connection there. Quote Selected
Have battery power, no start Reply #3 – February 10, 2016, 01:46:27 AM Ignition switch.. Quote Selected
Have battery power, no start Reply #4 – February 10, 2016, 05:00:22 AM interesting,, wonder if your engine tech thread and this will finally come to a solve.what you just said is when you shut then re-opened your door,, all came back to life again?do you happen to remember if you "bumped" the bottom of the steering column when getting in,, ? the main light switch would not cause a no start but for sure an ignition switch would,,, *not the key cylinder*,, the ignition switch.... and or like foe said above Quote Selected
Have battery power, no start Reply #5 – February 10, 2016, 09:28:40 AM Quote from: ThunderbirdSport302;453797Ignition switch..Not going to cause loss of head lights...It's loosing power totally, don't be chasing fly specks, there's horse turd in there some place... As already mentioned check connections on solenoid plus battery ground cable onto block... Also be sure the ground to chassis is good(a real possibility where your problem lies)... Quote Selected
Have battery power, no start Reply #6 – February 10, 2016, 07:35:46 PM For a quick check, stick jumper cables onto the battery and power side of starter solenoid and also between battery and engine for ground. There are only a few small battery to chassi grounds and they all have to do with efi junk.All the fuseable links should be on one side of the starter solenoid including the headlight ones if I remember correctly. Quote Selected
Have battery power, no start Reply #7 – February 10, 2016, 10:15:13 PM Thanks guys. I'm wanting to check the ground strap that's on the passenger side head, but the heater hoses and the air injection tube run above the bolt, making it very hard to get to the bolt. Is there some way to get to it without having to remove the hoses and injection tube? Quote Selected
Have battery power, no start Reply #8 – February 11, 2016, 10:59:55 AM Do as Stack says or just add another ground from battery and/or block to chassis... The car is stupid, doesn't really care where the grounds are... Quote Selected
Have battery power, no start Reply #9 – February 11, 2016, 04:10:43 PM Easier way to check, rather then checking for grounds on the engine, pull the passenger side kick panel and test resistance at pins 20 40 and 60 on the computer. If these check out, its not the efi related grounds. There is one main ground for the computer on the sheet metal spliced directly to the main ground cable for the battery on most cars.If the dome light is dimming and the car isn't starting, you have a bad/corroded main power line or ground. It could also be the starter solenoid, but that wouldn't explain the fuel pump not priming. I personally would be focusing on the fuseable links to the starter solenoid. Like I said earlier, if it is a bad engine to battery ground, jumper cables would quickly prove it. Quote Selected
Have battery power, no start Reply #10 – February 11, 2016, 06:55:01 PM Quote from: Haystack;453819Easier way to check, rather then checking for grounds on the engine, pull the passenger side kick panel and test resistance at pins 20 40 and 60 on the computer. If these check out, its not the efi related grounds. There is one main ground for the computer on the sheet metal spliced directly to the main ground cable for the battery on most cars.If the dome light is dimming and the car isn't starting, you have a bad/corroded main power line or ground. It could also be the starter solenoid, but that wouldn't explain the fuel pump not priming. I personally would be focusing on the fuseable links to the starter solenoid. Like I said earlier, if it is a bad engine to battery ground, jumper cables would quickly prove it.He's loosing all power, grounds on EEC won't tell us a thing unless he's reading back to battery post(I don't suspect that's likely.. AFAIK you could toss the ground to EEC and lights, starter etc will still operate... If it is a ground problem, he's loosing power because of poor connection between body or maybe engine block and battery... If ground is from battery to block then to body, it could be one of those... Quote Selected
Have battery power, no start Reply #11 – February 11, 2016, 08:01:00 PM Personally, the first thing I'd be looking at are the battery terminals and cables. I've seen many cars towed into the dealership with loose or dirty battery connections. They work fine for lights and stuff, but the poor connection acts as a fuse and "blows" when you hit the starter, killing everything. The act of opening and closing the door may have shaken the car just enough to get a connection again.A couple of things to consider: A bad engine ground will cause a no crank but won't kill your lights, because they are grounded to the body. A bad body ground could cause a no crank though, because your solenoid is grounded to the body.As mentioned above, ALL power for the car comes through that heavy cable on the battery side of the solenoid, so if this is a bad connection nothing will work. If the solenoid itself were bad, or if the heavy cable on the other side of it were to have a bad connection, you'd have no crank but everything else would work. That is also true about the battery cables and terminals. They carry the whole car, so to speak, so if they are bad you'll have the problem you described in your first post. Make sure the terminals on the battery and the ends of the battery cables are clean (shiny on the battery posts, and shiny inside the cable connectors), and make sure they are clamped to the battery tight. You should not be able to move them by hand. Also make sure that where the copper wire is crimped/moulded into the lead clamp has not deteriorated/corroded. If your cable ends have been replaced with aftermarket bolt-on types, make sure the cables are tightly clamped down.It is also possible the battery has an internal short/open. This happened to me once, with my first Thunderbird, and it was a fairly new battery. I drove to a friend's house, everything was OK. When I went to leave the car was stone dead. It started with a boost, but when the booster cables were removed the lights got really bright. When I got it home I put a voltage meter on the battery with the car running, and it was 18 volts! Shut the car off, it went to 0.5 volts. Brought the battery to the store for testing, and it tested bad (again, 0.5 volts). Got a free battery through warranty out of it... Quote Selected
Have battery power, no start Reply #12 – February 11, 2016, 09:20:09 PM Quote from: TurboCoupe50;453820He's loosing all power, grounds on EEC won't tell us a thing unless he's reading back to battery post(I don't suspect that's likely.. AFAIK you could toss the ground to EEC and lights, starter etc will still operate... If it is a ground problem, he's loosing power because of poor connection between body or maybe engine block and battery... If ground is from battery to block then to body, it could be one of those...Same thing goes for a bad power connection. He wanted to check the ground straps and head strap but couldn't get to it. A resistance check between the grounded pins of the computer would tell you if you have a good groung through the pin, the entire wire where it's grounded and back to the frame.I've "fixed" many loose or bad wires/connections between grounds and battery by using jumper cables as I stated above. If it is a weak connection, then adding a new one would solve all.My own personal opinion through, there is only one place in the whole car the eec power, headlights and start circuit all converge, and that is at the fuseable links and solinoid. Jumping the "hot" side directly to the battery would rule out any bad connections to the battery and engine ground to begin with. It could also be the starter solinoid if the battery is really good and cables are fine. The last 5 parts store ones I bought didn't last a week. Now I pull OEM ones off fenders when I go junkyarding and haven't had a problem since.I know better then to talk down on you Tom, no disrespect is ment at all. I couldn't thank you enough for you and jcassity forcing me to run codes and actually trouble shoot problems on my first car back in the sleezy board days. I've learned alot from those few things I managed to not screw up. Quote Selected
Have battery power, no start Reply #13 – March 05, 2016, 02:10:00 PM Thanks for all the advice guys! After the initial time it happened, I cleaned up the grounds that I could get to, I took the wires off of the solenoid and cleaned them all up, and didn't have any more problems. Until last night. I was working on the car, and went to start it. It did the same thing, domelight dimmed, dash lights/speedometer turned off, starter solenoid clicked a few times, and then nothing at all. While I was turning the key, a friend of mine wiggled the positive batter cable and it started right up. After that, I took all the wires off of the solenoid and cleaned them up really good with Emory cloth to the point that they were all shiny. I put it all back together, and it fired right up. Then this morning I drove the car to meet some friends for coffee, and when I got ready to leave it did the same thing, no start. I wiggled the positive cable again, nothing happened. Finally, shut the door fairly hard, and then it started up again. I drove it home quickly in case it died (I still don't have the engine issue quite figured out yet). I'm wondering about a loose connection somewhere. I read in an earlier comment that the starter solenoid grounds to the body. Is that through the two screws that hold it to the inner fender? If so, that might be the issue because I noticed that it is very loose (I can't tighten the screws very much). If I got a couple slightly larger screws to hold it to the inner fender firmly, would that take care of it? Thanks Quote Selected
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