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So...I was driving minding my own business at night with my high beams and heater on. I had to do a 3 point turn and the second I put it in reverse the car shut down. I haven't been able to get the car in my garage to start looking around due to the weight of the car, steepness of my driveway, and the antisocial behavior of myself. But when I do get it in there, what things should I look at 1st? Any info would be appreciated. I do know there is a fuseable link hidden in the wiring harness (that's what my original shop manuel says) . And I'll get to that asap.
Thanks
What does it do or do not do? Will it crank at all? Will it run for a split second until you let go of the key? Or does it just go "click" when you try to start it?
I would start the the battery cables looking for a bad connection and continue along that path because there just aren't that many places where the electrical path can shut down the car like that.
A little additional information would help. Do you have lights but no other power? have you put a multi meter on the battery to see if there is any juice there. If you could narrow it down a little it would help.... Tedd
What does it do or do not do? Will it crank at all? Will it run for a split second until you let go of the key? Or does it just go "click" when you try to start it?
Oh no no no. Lol. When I said it went 100 % dead...nothing. as if a ghost took out my alt and battery at the same time.
A little additional information would help. Do you have lights but no other power? have you put a multi meter on the battery to see if there is any juice there. If you could narrow it down a little it would help.... Tedd
Sorry everybody, I thought my make and model where on here. It's a 72 cutlass.
Nope oldcutlass. ..nothing. actually, the horn has never worked. The battery still has juice . It's a dead car with a charged battery. Like I said, as if the battery and alternater was removed right when I put it in reverse while doing a 3 point turn. I've never had something like this happen to me. I've had batteries explode. Alts go out. Bit not a total electrial shut down.
right when I put it in reverse while doing a 3 point turn
Hmmm. The neutral safety switch would be involved at that point, but it wouldn't explain the loss of all electrical functions.
Have you checked the main harness plug on the firewall? Maybe it's loose and lost contact during the 3 point turn?
Also check to see if there is a drain on the battery. It's possible that a main power wire grounded, causing the engine to die immediately and is now preventing power to the electrical system.
Last edited by Fun71; December 15th, 2016 at 03:38 PM.
Nope oldcutlass. ..nothing. actually, the horn has never worked. The battery still has juice . It's a dead car with a charged battery. Like I said, as if the battery and alternater was removed right when I put it in reverse while doing a 3 point turn. I've never had something like this happen to me. I've had batteries explode. Alts go out. Bit not a total electrial shut down.
Time to get out the ol trusty multi meter or test light and see where the voltage drops off. Start at the battery and follow the cables. It should not be hard to find. Look for a bad connection at the horn relay power distribution stud. There should be a fusible link there that powers the main power wire that runs through the firewall.
Time to get out the ol trusty multi meter or test light and see where the voltage drops off. Start at the battery and follow the cables. It should not be hard to find. Look for a bad connection at the horn relay power distribution stud. There should be a fusible link there that powers the wire that runs through the firewall.
What he said. I've never had a fusible link blow with out some kind of major short happening, but then again I still think electricity is some kind of black majic.... Tedd
OC Eric gave you the starting point. I would only add that you start directly on the battery terminals, then move neg test lead to block, then to frame. If showing 12 V leave neg lead on frame and move positive lead along following battery cable to junction post and check all connections there. Then move on checking each wire from there.
You could have 2 problems that occurred together, but find the missing volts first.
Killer info everbody. I'm going to do as much of all of this I can. Just need 4 guys to push my car up my drive way. Damn murphys law, I have neighbors that always have a bunch of friends over but the last 3 days no one has been home. Lame.
Haha and Patrick, real cars have 4 ashtrays! Love it. I had a 64 olds 98...I think it had 5 ashtrays and lighters. This was over 20 years ago so hard to remember.
If you go out and start just shaking your cables looking for loose connections you may just be able to start it and get it up the driveway.
I just think it strange that I saw the era of vehicles having ashtrays and lighters to multiple cupholders and power points. Among many other changes. Like life, some things are better and some are not. And cup holders were an upgrade.
If you want to start it, just run a jumper wire to coil+ terminal and then momentarily jumper the the big lug to the S terminal on the starter solenoid. That will bypass the main power wires to the cabin. Just remember to remove the coil + jumper to turn the engine off.
Note: if there is a major short, it may cause other issues, so be careful.
If NOTHING in the car works and the battery is known to be good, the problem MUST be one of the two battery cables. Start there. Test systems independently. Do you have power at the stud on the horn relay? Are connections clean? Is the ground path good? Etc, etc. It takes very little for things like the headlights or brake lights to work, as these are not connected to the ignition switch. Look at the wiring diagram in the manual, trace circuits, and find the problem. This is not difficult, just painstaking attention to detail. A major failure like this all at once will be caused by an obvious problem.
Look at the wiring diagram in the manual, trace circuits, and find the problem. This is not difficult, just painstaking attention to detail. A major failure like this all at once will be caused by an obvious problem.
Exactly.
I gave my recommendation of what to check first in post #5.
Hey guys. So the rain stopped so I started poking around. Guess what I found...I found a pinched wire that was pinched between my newly installed transmission and block...I think. The pinched portion lines up perfectly with the location but funny thing is, is there is no gap what so ever where it could of been pinched and bolt is tight as hell. Can't figure out if its been pinched for years, got pinched and the shop didn't notice, or what. But it's mangled. It's hard to figure out where it goes but looks like it goes into fuse box. I have power to the horn relay, and one terminal on the regulater. I don't have power anywhere in the fuse box at the fuses. I don't see (or smelt when it happened) any burning. And I had to wait in my car for an hour for a tow so I probably would of smelt it. I can't get under my car yet so can't look at anything there. The pinch point, oddly enough, has a splice as if it has been damaged before. I'll try and show the pic I took but this mobile app for this site sucks. The wire is brown and then at the splice it turns black or purple, even with a light in the sun it's hard to tell. Any more thoughts?
I'm ASSuming that that picture is looking down toward the right side of the engine at the back by the firewall.
While you're there, why not take a look for the ground strap from the back of the head to the firewall?
I looked at all that stuff before I called the tow truck. But guess what! I found a pinched wire down by the tranny (I had a monster transmission installed) and either it was pinched with the old tranny or they pinched it with this new one. So I cut out the bad section, soldered the wire back together, found a fuse in that thing with the orange wires that blew. Replaced that and tada! It's all good now. I guess some one replaces the fuseable Link with an in line fuse. Either way, it's good and I'm going to make the shop pay the 200 dollar tow bill. Or small claims court ...hereI come. Thanks again guys.
Glad you got it, always a good idea to look around the last work done when a failure occurs. They may have tightened up the bellhousing bolts, caught it, and just got the wire free and re-tightened. Or it was tightened, left a little lose and when you reversed it pulled free. I think I would check those bolts for tightness.
That's crazy, a wire like the one you show kills everything. I'd like to know where that wire goes to just for future knowledge. Does anyone know what that wire does or feeds? Good catch on the fix !!
I don't know how milkmen's car is wired, but if it's wired like the factory wired it, there should be no wire in that vicinity that could cause that effect when shorted to ground.
I think we will understand better when we learn what the "thing with the orange wires" is.
- Eric
edit: as I think about it, and without knowing what the wire is that is pictured, and without knowing whether there was a second wire down by the transmission that shorted to ground, or whether it's all the same wire, the only thing I can think of is that if the ignition power wire, which runs directly to the ignition switch, and from there to the horn relay, with no fuse, were to short to ground, you would burn up the fusible link, though if that did happen, I would expect a significant odor of burning, because the wiring would probably warm up a fair amount before the link burned.
Last edited by MDchanic; December 17th, 2016 at 05:37 PM.
Thanks for clarifying that Eric, I'm sure you and Oldcutlass remember when I didn't put my ground wire back on from the head to fire wall after I did my intake, valve covers etc.
You both mentioned I should put it back in which I did before my electrical components began acting up.
I figured you nailed it when you posted about the ground wire from the head to firewall earlier in this thread, however in Milkmens case it seems to be that wire he's holding.
Maybe he has something else going on and it was just a fluke that the wire he's showing actually fixed his issue temporarily .
December 15th, 2016, 11:30 AM
