This is a new thread based off of this one: "Upgrading to the 1988 CS 'I' type alternator, some questions"
Now I have a more legitimate problem and need some advice please
Okay, so I am still having some sort of major problem. I can't get the car started. the alternator is hooked up correctly with Wombat's Instructions. I took the battery in to sears and they said it's good. It's voltage reads right around 13. I open the door, courtesy lights come on, I turn the key to 'ON' i can hear the fuel pump start and then stop, but then when I turn it to start, it cranks for half a second and then everything electrical shuts off and it stops cranking. then when you turn the key back to 'on' or 'off' the electronics stay off until i disconnect, then reconnect the battery. When I tried jumping it from my friend's car, we managed to get it to crank consistently, but it was very slow and the lights dimmed with every crank. All the fusible links have been replaced with good in line fuses, I replace the battery bolts because they were pretty old, and I know it should Work because it started up fine and ran yesterday. I know the alternator is good, because I had the shop test it for me (for free)
Am I missing something? It's like when you try to crank it, all the power gets dumped....
I also thought that... I bought a new set of the battery bolts, cleaned up the battery connection and the battery cables... It's weird. I don't think it's my ECM, because I can short Pins A and B and it goes into the code list just fine (No Codes)
Any more suggestions? I'm going to go see if I can jump the solenoid right now and report back
You might have a dead cell or some kind of an internal short with your battery. Did you have them draw current through your battery? I had a battery that would read over 13 volts that started my van fine for some time, then one day it would start to crank and then DEAD, just like you said. AutoZone will load test batteries. Voltage can show up in a situation where, if a large current is drawn over, say a "weak" or corroded area inside the battery, the resistance will increase. So ohm's law is Volts = Amperage x Resistance, or Amperage = Volts / Resistance. When you draw 500 or more amps at 12 volts, resistance needs to be very low (almost zero 0.024 ohms). So imagine that your battery has built up internal resistance due to corrosion or something, as the resistance increases, in order to maintain the 500 amps, the voltage would have to drop down, and that is unacceptable for starting a motor (I don't know why on that part, except maybe the voltage is the pressure for the current maybe?). If you don't have a multimeter then I would have it load tested. If that checks out I would start looking for corroded battery terminals/wires going to solenoid/starter (big ones).
Take off the battery cables from the battery again. Hit both the cable surfaces that touch the battery and the battery surfaces that touch the cables with a wire brush. Put it back together and it will work.
This is your problem.
What is happening is that the majority of the surfaces are corroded. When bolted together only a small surface is actually touching. When you turn the key to start, the high amperage needs of the starter burn the small points that are touching. You hear a pop and the car goes dead. Then when you take the cables off and put them back on again you mash together the cable in a slightly new place and you do it over again.
Been there, done that exactly as above. Cleaning the surfaces off with a wire brush fixed them every time the trouble looked like this.
[This message has been edited by phonedawgz (edited 04-26-2014).]
take cables off at battery, clean all contact surfaces of the cable and battery and re-attach them using dialectic grease to prevent future corrosion. if the starter still turns slowly you may have a bad starter, run jumper cables straight to the starter after cleaning all contact connections including at the starter. if still no joy bring the starter in for testing, you may just have a week starter.
I hate electrical problems, I would rather pound my balls flat with a sledge hammer than hunt down an electrical problem!
Steve
------------------ Technology is great when it works, and one big pain in the ass when it doesn't
Cleaned up everything, it started right up! twice! I even drove it for a couple miles.
Then, I go out this morning and it starts up fine, then died after five seconds and kills all of the electronics. interior lights and everything! things only start working again if I Disconnect and reconnect the battery, which seems to be restarting something.
Just gave that a shot. The other battery has just under 13V and starts the minivan just fine. I hooked it up and the fiero is still responding like there isn't even a battery hooked up.
My neighbor suggested that maybe some sort of voltage regulator had died? Like I said, even with the new battery in it, you turn the key to ON and absolutely nothing happens. Thanks for the suggestion though
Get a 12v test light. Once the problem has occurred and is still occuring turn on the parking lights to present a load to the battery. Now] take the test light and connect it to the battery bolts. Does the light light? If so first move one lead from the battery bolt to the battery cable termainal. Then do the same with the other. Then try moving the negative to ground. Then move the positive to the power distribution bolts located under C500. Where does the power stop? That is your problem.
Well, Went through everything and it was a blown fusible link that I had replaced with an in-line fuse, Although when I checked it earlier it wasn't blown... What amperage fuse should I have in these fusible links? sorry to be having such a silly problem
Id replace the fuseable link. If you just want some other kind of circuit protection, put in a circuit breaker instead of an inline fuse. Thats whats used on power seats and windows for that reason. Theyre usually gray metal and about 1/2" X 1"....in the same fuse box as the other fuses.