69 442 drop top, air, automatic, Garage freezing

No igniton, no lights, no horn, no nutt'in

Fuses look good

Where's the best place to begin looking for the problem.

Yoooooooooooo Hoooooooooooo Rob,

Your ole buddy is dead in the water.

 

Can you start it with jumper cables? Since everything is dead I'd start by cleaning the battery cables and the contact at the horn relay. Put a battery charger on it and get it fully charged. If that doesn't do it...... then someone who knows more about wiring than me will have to speak up

John

 

My bet is battery or cable(s)

 

Battery test good under load in the car with the load tester on the cables. I keep a battery tender on it 24/7

 

Battery cables - check both of them, all ends.
Got a voltmeter? Time to go huntin' electrons!!

 

Rob,

This just isn't my electrical day. De kitchen lights went out and the lectrician jes told me the neutral done been shorted and I got to start hunting [from the pannel] for where it's gone Tango Uniform.

Wierdest thing I ever saw. The light Switch showed current top and bottom w/ the switch on or off.

Back to the drop top. Are you telling me [cause I'll believe ya] that the load tester on the outside of the cables can say "Good" with a load and it can still be the cables?

I hate electrical problems.

 

Yup, I would pull both cables and clean the ends at the battery and check the ground straps. The only reason I'm saying this is because as you said nothing works!!

 

Thanks,

I'll try it in the morning. I was confused because of the battery load tester said it was good and I hooked it to the cables while they were on the battery

 

http://www.anything-sailing.com/showthread.php/234-Tracing-amp-Isolating-Parasitic-Loads-%28Battery-Leaks-Gremlins%29?p=2072

While pulling fuses.

 

The electrons are against you!

Quick battery cable test:

With light switch on, measure voltage from negative batt terminal to chassis and body ground. If you have 0, then the ground path is okay. If you read 12V, it is open.

Do the same on positive. From + batt terminal to horn relay 12V junction. If 0, then it is ok. 12V means there is an open.
Turn lights off when done.


In your house if you are measuring from hot to ground and see voltage, than yes, your neutral is open somewhere. Do other parts of the house not work also?
If you have underground utilities, you might have a break there on one of the legs.

 

check your grounds,battery to eng,eng to cab,check for power at starter cable connection.do you have power a fuse panel?use jumper cable to make temparary ground to eng and cab.

 

Thanks guys,

Rob, I think a critter chewed the neutral in de basement.

I hope one didn't get in the drop top

 

Jamsbo,

Try the jumper cables as Rob stated. Battery load testing does not always identify a single dead cell and that's all it takes to make the battery dead. Had the same problem on the Cadd. Could not even jump the car because the dead cell was shorted and would put the voltage gauge on the Olds to negative charge when I tried to jump the Cadd. Cold weather brings out the worst in a battery.

Tell me more about the house problem. could just be a loose or corroded wirenut in the switch box or in a junction box. A circuit wire tracer could fing the problem easy enough.

 

Do the voltage checks as already mentioned. If it was me, I would check power at the horn relay and connect the negative lead of your volt meter to a body ground or engine ground rather than going directly to the negative battery lead. If 12V is there, this would tell you that the positive and negative connections from the battery to their respective locations is connected well. If this shows you have power to the horn relay, I would climb under the dash and look at your wiring connections to the ignition switch bolted to the lower section of the column. I believe one of the wires will be a heavy red one and check to see if you have power there. If you do and the connections look good, you might have a bad ignition switch. That switch powers everything up when you turn the key. Also make sure the rod that conencts to this switch is in fact moving the switch when you turn the ignition key. Be careful that the car won't move is you were to do something that would cause the car to start. A wiring diagram should show which wires are energized when the switch is in the on position. You could jump them by putting a lead between the red one and another wire just to see if you could power something up. If you could, it would point to a faulty switch.

 

That ignition switch, however has nothing to do with the lights or the horn.

 

Opps, no the ignition switch wouldn't keep the lights or horn from working. However, the main power feed to the ignition switch is the same feed to the headlights and much easier to reach for a quick test if other things don't prove anything.

 

I didn't know that. Just a few weeks ago, I tested on that said "Good" got it fully charged up and it wouldn't crank squat [in the Vista Cruiser]

Maybe 'tis the season to buy new batteries.