My '70 Olds Delta won't start tonight. Had no power. (It's been driving fine and I haven't touched anything recently). Tapped on the horn relay and jiggled the horn relay wires and power came back on. So I thought it was the horn relay. Put in a new one and power is back up. But as soon as I try to crank the car the power goes OFF again. If I disconnect the battery and reconnect it, power comes back ON. But as soon as I try to crank it, it goes out again. Fuses are fine. Relays are fine as I can tell. Starter is somewhat new. What else could it be? How do I check the fusible links??

TIA,
Aardvark the sitting duck.

 

 

Sounds like one of two things. One a loose connection, probably at the starter?

I would also suspect a bad ground. Clean and tighten all grounds.

Pat

 

It could be dirty/ corroded battery terminals, bad cable, etc... Check all your connections.

 

Sounds like a poor 12v connection at the battery terminal to me. Used to happen to my 72 Vista all the time until I finally reworked the positive terminal cable. Check and double check those connections. Make sure they're CLEAN and free of corrosion. Make sure all contact is secure. Make sure that every connection the cable makes with the battery terminal uses all available surface area on any metal that is to conduct electricity. Make sure the ground terminal is snug and tight and free of all corrosion.

Even if the cable is barely on the terminal, your lights will come on and maybe even your radio will play (even with an amplifier and good sound), but the starter draws FAR MORE power than other components do in order to turn the crank and so any loss of conduction at all will automatically shut down the entire electrical system when you try to start the car.

If it was a bad fusible link (usually at the starter), nothing would work on most of the car at all.

 

^^^THIS.

Check and clean BOTH batt terminals. For that matter, when was the last time you replaced the batt cables?

 

Forgot to mention, both battery connectors are new. Cleaned them and replaced them just a few months ago.

Changed out the 16ga fusible link at the horn relay this morning and no change. Going under to check the starter.

 

Just so you know, so too was my positive terminal. I bought a wingnut type that kept coming unfastened. In the end, I stripped away much of the rubber surrounding the plate and tightened that sucker down with vicegrips and never had the problem again.

Good luck!

 

This is the classic symptom of a bad, high resistance connection. The marginal connection will flow enough current for some functions to work, but as soon as you try to flow high current to operate the starter, resistance goes up and the connection goes away. Again, clean ALL connections in the circuit, including the ground side, not just the power side. And cleaning the terminals several months ago is no guarantee that they are clean today. Stop replacing parts until you trouble shoot.

 

problem fixed. it was the other fusible link. I didn't see the second one. and although it tested fine for continuity it was not enough juice to power the car. thanks everyone.

 

I just gotta say sweet ride love the 30 spokes. Atleast they look like 30 spokes lol.

 

thanks! they're cragar star wire 50-spoke =)