No juice

[Jim Lee]

Symptom:
Turn the key this morning and turned over and over then stopped turning and no power period. Made sure that the battery cables were tight. Looked over some wires and turned the ignition back on. Fine. Turned over the engine for a few more seconds and then nothing. No electric pump ticking. No ignition light. No starter turning.

Tool a few minutes to check the wires behind the instrument panel and then turned the key. Fine. Turned the starter for another few seconds and then nothing. Repeated this cycle of events a few times more. Battery was just charged over night and when it is working the fuel pump sounds alot quicker and stronger than it was before. Two electrical changes that I made since it was running fine were to replace the headlight foot dimmer switch with a generic one from napa. Also put in a Petronix ignitor in place of the points.

I should have done one at a time I know. When it is not turning on my test light does not see any power at the switch. The two fuses are fine. Other than putting that points back in and putting the headlight dimmer back in, to get back to exactly where I was electrically can anyone advise me on what your next move would be?

Thanks very much,
Jim Lee

 

[Jim Lee]

Feeling much better now. Did my due diligence checking from the battery positive and lo and behold the first connection at the solenoid was not as it should have been. In case anyone else butts up against this be forewarned that everything electric can work normally with a very loose nut on top of all that red wire there. The clue I should have been attuned to was that sometimes the starter would hiccup or just stop turning after a few seconds. I thought it was the starter going.

Still I should have been smarter than to make two changes that could affect the electrical system at the same time. I am hoping to get just enough sun power to dgo for a run this afternoon. I really want to put off affixing the hardtop until the very last minute.

Happy and safe motoring all.

Jim Lee

 

[71MKIV]

funny how that works isn't it.

glad you found it.

 

[TR3driver]

When it's in the "no juice" state, does pushing the button on the starter solenoid do anything? If not, you've isolated the problem to the battery cables (including the ground strap). My next step would be to remove both cables from the battery and use a battery brush

to get both the posts and clamps looking like this

If that doesn't fix it, my next step would be to remove the ground cable from the body, and scrape off the paint around the bolt.

Otherwise (if the engine will still crank with the solenoid button), I'd keep probing with the test light, to find the first place where there should be power and is not. The brown wire just where it comes off the starter solenoid would be a good place to check, as well as terminals A and A1 on the voltage regulator. But I'm betting on the problem being in the battery cables (or possibly at that solenoid post with the brown wire), as they are the only parts that are common between the starter circuit and the rest of the car.