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I thought you said the gauge was only reading about 10V and lights got dim and it shut off? Your car will stop if your battery is being drained. 10V charge to a 12 V battery with lights on will not last a long time.
Dean,
Correct, but the car is dead, no lights, nothing. 10V will still light interior lights, etc. I suspect an open or corroded wire between the starter and alternator.
The wiring is battery to starter, then to the alternator, then to jump post, then to central panel.
I will try to post a diagram from the WS manual shortly,
Dave
Last edited by outbackgeorgia; 11-18-2014 at 06:39 PM.
Reason: fix
Thanks men. I am grateful for the knowledge.
I had a flatbed put it back in the garage today. I hope to have time to jack it back up tonight and formulate a plan.
The battery box does have a separate ground strap, but like most I have owned. I am sorry to say that I have my voltmeter but no leads. I don't know why they would ever be separated......
I have an extra battery, an extra alternator and an extra starter. I am hoping to discover a flaw in the connections once I lift the front.
Lifting now
Typical good news/bad news. After having a couple of good conversations with Dave today concerning current flow and weak areas I started with the starter
Well the exact instructions were to measure voltage at battery, if good proceed to starter; measure voltage at starter, if good proceed to jump post; measure voltage........ But since I did not have a volt meter I went straight to the starter and began removing hot wires. The connections were dirty and greasy. I cleaned each of the three individually and sprayed them down with deoxit. I then cleaned the bolt and the nut in the same manner. I then moved to the alternator and did the same to the four hot wires and post. I then went to the jump post and it was very clean and very tight.
I hooked up the ground at the battery and the headlights immediately came on.
I turned it over a couple of times and the battery did not have enough power to continue to crank. All pod lights were still on and typical symptoms of a dead battery. I swapped in another battery and it cranked right up and settled into a nice idle.
The bad news is that when I turned the car off it continued to run....... I only shut it off by the battery cutoff switch. Now with no key in the ignition and I turn the battery back on all the interior lights come on.
Look at the diagram I sent in post 198. On the starter, the wire from 16 goes to a resistor and then to the ignition coil. This is an assist to starting. Either the switch in the starter is stuck "on" or the black/yellow wire that is connected to 16 on the starter is somehow shorted to battery power and is keeping the coil turned on and car running.
Recheck this wire or disconnect it completely, it will probably still start without the "assist".
This wire goes to a resistor near the coil. There are two resistors, and this is a bypass of one of the resistors to assist starting. I will post the rest of the diagram shortly.
Dave
Full diagram,
Really need a voltmeter to check the voltage on the wire between the two resistors. I suspect it is at battery voltage and the car will continue to run, it is also backfeeding the 15 bus (top of page).
There is a short between the black/yellow and battery power.
The other area is the infamous 14 pin connector just above the jump post. Have you checked this for shorts? This is how it gets from the starter to the resistor is through the 14 pin connector.
This is a major and common area of corrosion and frayed wires causinf shorts as we are observing here.
Thanks Dave. I will pick up another volt meter today while out. I will try removing the black and yellow wire from the starter tonight. I really don't understand much of your advice beyond that, but maybe it is just too early.
I am just pointing out that the 14 pin connector under the hood just above the jump post can cause this issue. Have you inspected that connector and the wiring to it?
It is very common to have corrosion and frayed wiring there.
There are many threads on 14 pin connector.
Dave
Thanks Dave and Dean for your advice. Richard also suggested the ignition switch. I had experienced the symptom of car not shutting off once previously and had researched it a little. The opinion was a faulty ignition switch. I picked one up from Randy V a few months ago so I may try swapping that out to eliminate that as a possibility.
Feeling very discouraged right now I came home for lunch today and spent the hour looking for the ignition switch thought I bought over the summer. No luck. I picked up a new multi meter on the way home from work and found the battery had 11.7 V. eh.... no biggie I guess. Got under the car to measure the power at the starter and got nothing. Car not running but the key in the on position. I tried several different areas to use as ground but got nothing. Which is impossible because the car will start. I am obviously doing something wrong. The same results with the jump post.
Oh well, I guess I can just pull the ignition switch from the Euro and replace it when the spare shows up. I crawled into the 79 and studied what it would take to replace the switch. After two years of this interior being scattered across three states I FINALLY have everything put back together and it looks like in order to replace that ignition switch I will have to remove the center console and the pod to have the access I need. X2 because I will have to do the same thing to the Euro to get the switch I need.
I am not willing to do that at this time. Maybe tomorrow... but not today.
Just worn out
11-18-2014, 05:37 PM
I came home for lunch today and spent the hour looking for the ignition switch thought I bought over the summer. No luck. I picked up a new multi meter on the way home from work and found the battery had 11.7 V. eh.... no biggie I guess. Got under the car to measure the power at the starter and got nothing. Car not running but the key in the on position. I tried several different areas to use as ground but got nothing. Which is impossible because the car will start. I am obviously doing something wrong. The same results with the jump post.
X2 because I will have to do the same thing to the Euro to get the switch I need.