No Electrical Power

[pbatura]

My son drove the '76Z last night and he ran out of gas, so he thought. Basically the engine just died, no real sputtering.

He gets gas, tries to start it, and although the electrical pump is running, the engine wont crank. They try jumping it - nada. I get home late last night, take a look at everything, and the observe the same.

Thinking it's the battery, charge it overnite. This morning, pump goes, no crank.

Thinking it's the starter, take one from parts car and install this evening - nothing, not even the pump, no lights, nothing.

Fusible links ohm out ok, except one brown, don't remember which one, is intermiitent depending on wire bend position.

Battery cables test good.

I have a solid state voltage reulator that I could try. I've seen the threads on intermittent grounds, and the recommendation to clean and check everything, but I'd like to get some guidance.

Thanks in advance for the help...

[skunkteeth]

The brown fusible links are actually red (50A). One is for the headlight switch and the other is for the ignition switch. Try switching the intermittent with the non intermittent or seeing if cleaning the connection fixes it.

EDIT: You say the electrical pump works, I suppose you mean the fuel pump. Did you try other electrical stuff like the lights/radio/wipers etc?

[pbatura]

Thanks for the reply.

You are correct, the pump I refer to is the fuel pump.

I converted to dual-SUs, so used an aftermarket low-pressure pump in place of the high-pressure factory pump. Used same wiring connections though.

As of now, nothing electrical works. I've verified the battery is fully charged.

I think I should get new fusible links, as these look to be all of 30+ years...

I'll move what I have around and reply with the results.

Best regards,

PSB

[skunkteeth]

I replaced my fusible links with a modern AGU style fuse box ala this: http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/fusiblelinks/index.html

I did not buy it from him but sourced all the stuff I needed. It came to about 60 with 5 of each fuse for each rating. I bought it from a car audio supply store online.

It cleans up the engine compartment a bit and makes finding fuses a bit easier

[m4xwellmurd3r]

Also, make sure all your connections are free of corrosion. I had a battery cable that was corroded (but didn't look bad) and it was enough to make it so that if I clicked the key to ACC voltage was fine and everything, but if I did ANYTHING that involved high amps (starting, headlights, antenna trim) the voltage would totally drop out and it would become electrically dead.

[KDMatt]

Also, make sure all your connections are free of corrosion. I had a battery cable that was corroded (but didn't look bad) and it was enough to make it so that if I clicked the key to ACC voltage was fine and everything, but if I did ANYTHING that involved high amps (starting, headlights, antenna trim) the voltage would totally drop out and it would become electrically dead.

I will voice the same conclusion... a lot of gremlins disappear with clean connections...

[m4xwellmurd3r]

Electrical gremlins can be a nightmare, but at least they're free to fix. I worked out most of my electrical gremlins within the first week or two of getting my Z. It's THE MOST frustrating thing, but in the end, when you open your wallet and see that no money was spent you feel happy haha.

[DeesZ]

Interesting... With 'nothing' working, I would be inclined to look at the battery cables first, or perhaps immediately after replacing the fusible links and cleaning up all of the connections. Mine (a '72) did this intermittently, and it drove me half nuts. The gremlin would come out of hiding when the car got warm... after doing an errand the car would just groan, or sometimes do nothing - very frustrating. Things got a bit better when I cleaned up connections at the battery, chassis ground point, fusible link, starter, and alternator; they all needed attention. The gremlin was finally eliminated when I actually replaced the battery cables. What a positive difference that made for everything electrical. I had cleaned the battery connections several times, so it must have been resistance within the cable itself. I actually replaced the cables for mostly cosmetic reasons, as they were looking a bit ratty. I guess you could say that I stumbled across the solution when I wasn't looking for it.

I found great replacement cables at NAPA for about $25.00 (and they may have the fusible links on hand as well).

Please keep us advised on this.

[pbatura]

Thanks to everyone for the input.

After I mow the lawn this morning, I'll set about cleaning connections. I've got a can of "electrical connection cleaner" from Radio Shack. It cleans gunk off, but doesn'r do anything with corrosion. I remember seeing something in a post about a product that addresses this, so I'll need to search again and see if I can get it locally.

Good idea on replacing the battery cables, which I will do. I like the idea of a fuse block, but that may need to wait and I' just get replacement links for the time being.

Speaking of links, the shop manual gives the diameter of the three types of links, but not the rating, which is what the O'Reilly store has them listed under. Any help on rating would be appreciated.

I'll post follow-ups as I go...

Thanks again.

[sblake01]

The product you're looking for is called DeOxit. As far as the fusible link ratings for a 76:

Black 80 amps 0.50mm

Red 50 amps 0.69mm

Green 40 amps 1.25mm

[pbatura]

Here's a quick update -

• Got the DeOxit - wow, great stuff.
  
  

• Cleaned every connector, as well as ground points
  
  

• Replaced battery cables
  
  

• Replaced battery (under warranty)
  
  

• Replaced starter (under warranty) - odd situation, as the shaft was frozen

Hadn't yet replaced fusible links, but decided to go ahead and test - it worked!

Feeling pretty good about getting the battery replaced under warranty at Wal-Mart, I went ahead and got the fuse blocks Skunkteeth mentioned.

With fuses, I'm out about $32. Thanks to sblake01 for the ratings so I could get the right fuses.

I've got some scrap sheet, so will fabricate a mounting plate and install assembly in place of existing fusible links tomorrow afternoon.

I'll let you know how it goes. Might even send a photo.

Thanks again for the great support!

[Maddos]

Are you sure about CSA of those wires. Seems strange the highest current rating would be the smallest.