Hey guys, ok Im driving down the road at night ( rs lights on) and all lights in & out flicker, Im thinking oh no, & yes lights go out & entire car goes dead. Nothing works on car, including Ignition, radio, e- flashers, head lites & brake lites, nothing.Nobody can see me till there on top of me:eek:. Im thinking what the #&$@:mad:. So I check battery terminals, there tight. Now, I recently had problems with starting car,narrowed it down to engine harness, had to jump starter every once in a while,so I put in a remote starter til I fix, but had no problems with lites etc So I tried the remote, engine cranks but wont start (key is on) So Im in the dark feeling around on the harnesses and ran my hand over (lighting) harness (under left fender up by radiater support) and bingo LIGHTS,I get in, try the key, she fires rite up.My question is, why did I lose 100% power to entire car from wires to headlghts.:confused:

either your battery cables are no good or you blew a fuseable link I think

Check the junction block on the radiator support behind the battery and clean it. At this point I would suggest checking/cleaning all other contact points as well. Grounds especially.

So Im in the dark feeling around on the harnesses and ran my hand over (lighting) harness (under left fender up by radiater support) and bingo LIGHTS,I get in, try the key, she fires rite up.My question is, why did I lose 100% power to entire car from wires to headlghts.:confused:Along with the suggestion given to check/clean the junction block, check & clean the horn relay buss bar and its terminals.

Check the engine harness connection at the fuse box on the firewall. If the center screw is not tight, you can get an intermittent connection which will cause the problems you are describing.

Check that ground wire on the bat...it could be the culprit.

capt

Thanks for the tips , I will check them out. What wire is under left fender towards support that would kill all power. Thats the wires I moved when all power returned. There are three things under the fender that have lots of wires comming out of, I think they have something do do with the rally lights. (67)

What wire is under left fender towards support that would kill all power. Thats the wires I moved when all power returned.

Voltage regulator and horn relay connections/wires would be the first to check.

Check the junction block on the radiator support behind the battery and clean it. At this point I would suggest checking/cleaning all other contact points as well. Grounds especially.

I can think of 4 different cars I have bought over the years that had what was thought to be major issues the electrical system or something really bad had gone wrong. I got them very cheap!! Each time it has been the junction block, it might look OK but replacing it would be a good move. You can also just bypass the thing. When it starts going bad the wires get burned/hot resistance goes way up near/at the connection point on the junction block.

Joe

Bruce,
I don't have the complete diagram in front of me but there is a red lead from the harness that goes to one side of the breaker mounted on the RS relay board under your fender. The other side is an orange wire that runs to the first relay in sequence. It reads from your description that you are also experiencing problems in this area. I could pull the schematic if needed or tell you where to get one. And like I and others said, while your poking around, give everything the once over.

carry a 8ft wire with a bare spot on each end. you can go from the pos battery post to the block on the firewall where the horn runs to. seems like nothng works unless that is connected. also the screws that hold that part on(can't remember what it is called) can be rusty and loose ground. 68 had that issue and finally got rid of the issue by just moving things etc. and getting a new junction or what ever that part is. on mine it was on the drivers side of rad support. hope this ain't as dumb as it sounds.

http://www.pozziracing.com/Media/67rswire2.jpg

Had same issue coming home from the track around midnight a few months ago.

Found it to be a bad ground wire. Replaced both battery cables and added a few extra grounds to be safe.

I was troubleshooting a "no-crank" problem on my son's pickup a year ago. Opened the hood, checked battery cables, no corosion, wiggled cables, good and tight, eliminating the obvious.

Put a meter on the battery posts...12V. Scratching my head a bit...it was an '85 F150, so very simple starting circuit. Don't even know why I did it, but I put the plus lead of my meter on the incoming starter solenoid, and the meter read 7volts. Huh?
Back to the battery terms, 12v...solenoid, 7v...nothing in between but 18" of battery cable.
Then went from negative terminal to positive cable clamp... 7 volts. positive POST, 12v, positive CLAMP, 7v.
Turned out that the connector on the battery end of the cable was actually corroded internally, enough resistance to cause a 5 volt drop. Replaced the cable, everything was fine.

Moral to that long-winded story is just because it LOOKS good and FEELS good doesn't make it GOOD. :)

Jim

Right on Jim. Many times I've encouraged folks to use the voltage drop tests to find bad connections - which is essentially what you did. I've had a similar problem with a bad cable clamp. In my case it was obvious when I saw the little gene come out as a puff of smoke while my wife attempted to crank the car.