"Snuffy "Hub Cap" McKinney" wrote in
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On Tuesday, April 5, 2016 at 1:19:36 PM UTC-4, Snuffy "Hub Cap" McKinney
wrote:
Out of the blue, I turned the ignition key and the started jerked and
stopped. Next turn solenoid clicked only. After that no sound on
turning key. No radio, panel lights, headlights, etc.

My guess at this point is that there is a bad negative ground.

No ongoing symptoms before today. Battery is new and checks out as fully
charged. Voltage OK at the solenoid relay on the inside wall.

Searched last night for a main fuse or fusible links. Wiring diagrams
show them but do not tell where to look for them. I assume close to the
battery -- will spend some time now looking and TS with a meter.

Any other suggestions? Thanks in advance.

They will be (typically) some sort of little black box mounted on the
firewall, or somewhere near the main fuse box or battery, it may look like
a fancy connector as well. But it will be there. There will be no such
thing on the ground side. Only on the + side.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA


Thanks, I looked and didn't see it yet. Hot battery terminal has one
large and one small wire, both going directly to the solenoid relay
mounted on the side wall. No voltage drop between battery post and relay
connection.

Ground the negative probe of a voltmeter to some clean metal part of the
engine block and the positive probe to the negative battery post - if the
post swings negative under load; you've got a bad earth.

On motorcycles, I've had bad earths between engine and frame - I've no idea
whether or not that can happen on a car. But I'd assume anythings possible.