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Gertrude died!

K

Kats66Pny

Active Member
So I drove her to monthly club meeting tonight. All was good. Meeting over and went to go start Gert. Odd.. she wouldn't start. Ok we looked under hood, checked for anything loose, nothing. Tried starting her again.. she started up.

Cruising down the road headed to our weekly meet spot and I'm cruising along with a grin on my face and then wham.. she DIED! I was able to get over, put her back in park and start her back up. Ok good... drove about 20ft and she died again. Ok not good. Luckily my girl-friend (and her husband) with the 79 camaro was behind me following just in case since I couldn't get her started at the meeting. Which was good because Gert has no emergency flashers and I was on the side of the road where there were no street lights. She put her blinkers on though so that was very very helpful.

Anyway I tried to start Gert again.. nothing. Just a whining noise like it was trying to start but wouldn't. Kept trying and was getting nothing. No fuel pump noise either. I tired one more time and still nothing but the whining kept going. I turned the key to off and it still kept going. Took the key out of the ignition..it kept going. :wtf

No cars were coming so I jumped out and turned the battery off to kill all power. The noise stopped. Turned battery on and the noise came back. Then the noise got slower and slower and then ALL power was gone. No more lights, no noise, no nothing. Completely dead.

So we pushed her a block into walmart parking lot, and I called up my most favorite friend right now.... my tow truck buddy and we brought her home and put her back in the garage. We (me, husband, and tow truck friend) were looking around and stuff and we think we've narrowed down the problem.

When my husband tried starting Gertrude, you heard this grinding noise coming from the solenoid. I can't remember what they were talking about when talking about the alternator (I was busy pouting drinking my wine & mumbling profanities).. but I do recall at the end of the discussion it was mentioned a possible bad solenoid or bad alternator, both of which I just replaced. For some reason the car is running 100% on battery power and so now my battery is dead.

Looks like tomorrow I'm going to have to remove the solenoid and alternator and take them back to o'reillys and see if they can test them. Besides that.. any other advice on might be wrong? :shrug

Yes, I'm really bummed right now. :( On the bright side, I at least got to drive her to the monthly meeting and show her off to all the car club folks and I got lots of 'good jobs' .. 'good to see it again'... and lots of 'damn that car sounds good!' :thu Too bad she died after we left. I'm not going to hear the end of it now from the bowtie fans in the club. :roul
 
Sounds like one problem to me: battery isn't being charged. When this happens (running on battery), the car can die suddenly (not enough power to the coil), but then the car shouldn't be able to re-start (not enough power to crank the starter). I'd check the Voltage Regulator first.

If the car dies and re-starts, it could be a bad coil, a bad wire on the coil line, in your ignition box, starter solenoid, etc.
 
"Midlife" said:
Sounds like one problem to me: battery isn't being charged. When this happens (running on battery), the car can die suddenly (not enough power to the coil), but then the car shouldn't be able to re-start (not enough power to crank the starter). I'd check the Voltage Regulator first.

If the car dies and re-starts, it could be a bad coil, a bad wire on the coil line, in your ignition box, starter solenoid, etc.
Click to expand...
+1 Here :confu
 
Solenoid first so it doesn't try to keep starting with the key off. Had this happen and changed the ign. switch, no go, then the solenoid, bingo stuck solenoid that was NEW.
After the solenoid test the alt. and VR, check that your grounds are clean (no paint under) and sufficient (good cable not rubbery or brittle, big enough gauge)
Jon
 
Well. my club had an award for anyone who went to a club function and the car broke down. It was a decorated and painted toilet seat. The rule was you kept it until the next member had this issue and you had to display it at any and all times you were attending a club function or show or even a cruise.

I never had the honor of it being mine. I only ever broke down one time in a Mustang during a function, that was a Knott's cruise. The 67 started to catch fire. The wire loom in the steering wheel shorted out.

Anyway, start with the solenoid and just replace it. Many of them are bad from the factory. then test the rest. I wonder since you have done extensive rewiring under the hood if there is something wired wrong?

Mel
 
Lots of good suggestions so far to help Kat....with a caveat! That being, those are good starting points on a car that has been in working order. Since Kat's had the wiring all apart and there's already been one issue with some crossed wiring during reassembly, I'd suggest checking the wiring first for anything in the charging system to ensure all those connections are correct. Don't assume all the connections are correct. Not trying to cruel, just a realist. Randy can tell you, troubleshooting an electrical problem can be a nightmare if you're chasing the wrong path. Kat, take your diagrams and check each connection against the diagram. Make a photocopy of it, take a highlighter and just highlight every connection and it's associated wiring from both ends of the run on the diagram until all of them are colored in. That'll help you keep track of what's covered so far. It really doesn't take too much time to do and could save some headaches. Good luck with it.
 
Replaced the solenoid. No more grinding noise but still won't start. So tried replacing the voltage regulator (changed it last week) with the old one I had on it. Still nothing.

Tried jumping it and after a minute or two there was smoke coming from the negative jumper cable and the jumper cables were hot.
Also noticed the cable from the solenoid to the starter was warm. Not sure if that matters.

Here's a video of what's going on. Could it be bad starter or alternator? :shrug

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh6Xp9Ko-4I
 
When starter gets slow, it's drawing huge amounts of current, drawing the voltage down as well. That's responsible for the starter cable getting warm, as well as the jumper cables. When it slows down, turn the key off!

Did you adjust your timing yet? Some advanced timings cause starter problems. If not, I vote for a bad starter cable, a bad ground, or a bad starter.
 
When it slows down, turn the key off!
Click to expand...

The key was off.. AND out of the ignition. It still kept going.[/quote]

Did you adjust your timing yet? Some advanced timings cause starter problems. If not, I vote for a bad starter cable, a bad ground, or a bad starter.
Click to expand...

Nope, didn't mess with the timing. Left it alone until I could find someone who could do it by ear since the other person wouldn't do it without a tab.
 
Someone brought it up about my ignition switch possibly being bad or how the fuel pump is wired - how maybe the electric fuel pump wired directly to the back of the ignition switch might be too much for an old car to handle?

Could that possibly cause the problems I'm having?
 
"Kats66Pny" said:
Someone brought it up about my ignition switch possibly being bad or how the fuel pump is wired - how maybe the electric fuel pump wired directly to the back of the ignition switch might be too much for an old car to handle?

Could that possibly cause the problems I'm having?
Click to expand...
The list of possibles and probables is pretty long. You need to do as suggested and go back through your wiring and verify everything is correct. It sure seems as though your charging circuit was not right which led to or at least assisted in your problems. You may have more than a single problem to correct. Best to start from square one and confirm each part as you proceed through it all. If you have something wired wrong which caused a part to fail swapping in a new part will only result in the same failure.

To answer your question, yes it would be beneficial to run a high draw pump through a relay and not off the ignition switch.
 
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