Nightstrife

ok i have an 88 gxl that’s pretty much stock. i drove the car home from work one night and the next day i went out to drive it and i stuck the key in and i had nothing... and i mean nothing no crank no clicks or anything, so i thought it was the battery at first, i grabbed a battery charger/booster put it on the "start" mode and still nothing so i bypassed the battery and put the booster straight to the car i figured i would get the car started and i would find out if the battery was crap but i had the same result nothing.... a little while later i had my wife push me started the car started just fine and drove well although the radio acted funny like it had voltage but not enough it just made funny noises. so i parked the car at home again and started trying to figure out what was wrong...when i turn the key i noticed i had no idiot lights, no wipers, and the headlights won’t come up like they should they come up really slow and go down really slow I’m talkin snail’s pace...i also can barely hear a very faint beeping like you normally get but this sounds extremely week and i don’t always get it. Another thing is i have the door open so the dome light is on and when i turned the key it dimmed significantly and worse when i turned it to "start". so i did some searching on this forum and found that if i had no idiot lights i probably wasn’t getting juice though the ignition switch so i pulled it out and headed to work as i can get access to a multimeter, i read out the switch for anything weird and i discovered that on the on position i had a random amount of ohms and large too for something that shouldn’t have hardly any it was like 2 ohms and i wouldn’t move or anything then it would jump to like 450 ohms and i had one spike to like 800 so i bought a new switch thinking that was the culprit...

so i get the new switch install it and well nothing had changed... so i looked at the FSM and i ran the troubleshooting tree for starting problems i checked the battery and battery connections they seemed fine i checked the ignition switch (replaced) i checked the magnetic switch on the starter and the starter itself both by reading the magnetic switch and i took the starter to AutoZone and had it checked (starter had also been replaced within 6 months) but i checked it anyway. So finally i checked the clutch interlock switch and it had continuity when it should and was open when the clutch wasn’t depressed.

So then i started reading voltage...
Battery 12.5 volts
Right behind the main fuse in the engine compartment 11.5 volts (small drop but no big deal right?)
Ignition switch (I’m talking the contacts right on the switch not the connectors) 9.5 volts I’m thinking this is low but i can’t find where in the FSM it says what it should be...


Ladies and Gentlemen i am at a loss i am a decent mechanic i can do a lot with mechanical stuff i.e. metal things... but electricity i only have the basics....

I bow humbly before the Rotary Masters and all their wisdom

Please any advice would be helpful...

misterstyx69

iTrader: (142)

Check your battery connections..especially the wires that go from the battery to the engine,and to the engine bay fuse block.
Check the connections at the starter and clean the solenoid wire off so that it can get 12volts.
Remember that the black wire with the yellow stripe is NEGATIVE!.
Oh.try this too:..reach down past the clutch pedal and Press the interlock switch while putting the car ignition to start..see if it starts that way.Make sure YOU are in Neutral!!!!...EBRAKE ON!

satch

iTrader: (1)

The length of the Black wire which runs from the battery to the Main fuse is only a foot or so and the voltage should read battery voltage and not 11.5 volts as you lose a volt right there and then when that voltage arrives at the Black wire at the ignition switch you're losing another 2 volts (9.5). Check the Black connector below the engine fuse box that connects two Black wires together as one of them again should read battery voltage and this voltage passes onto the other wire in that Black connector and ends at the ignition switch so the connections between the battery and ignition switch are few in number. Also, clean the various grounds in the process and take a voltage reading from the Black output wire bolted to the alternator w/the car running as it should read north of 14 volts. The electrical circuits require a certain amount of voltage to run properly.

Nightstrife

thank you both for your replies and advice i will do as instructed thus far...

HAILERS2

The part about the headlights comin up very slowly and down very slowly...................makes me think others are right about the problem is in the cables from the batt to the engine bay fuse box or the battery itself has a internal short.

The reason is this. The ignition switch has nothing at all to do with the headlight assys coming up and down and nothing to do with the headlights coming on or off. Nothing at all. So the problem to me seems to have to be........bad battery.........bad cables attached to the battery..........bad cable b/t the battery positive post to the middle of the engine bay fuse box (front side of the box, middle of the box, cable held on with a 10mm wrench size bolt).

IF good power gets to the cable that attaches to the front middle of the engine bay fuse box, that will give full batt power to the HEAD fuse and the RETRACT fuse. The HEAD fuse feeds power directly to the headlight relay that is located on the frame the holds the radiator and then on to the headlight assys.

The actual power for the retract motors to go up/down comes off the RETRACT relay in the engine bay. A little hitch in that circuit in that power also has to go thru the headlight switch for CONTROL power of the retract assys. But if they go up and down but slowly it would not be the CONTROL power going thru the headlight switch. It would be low power coming off the RETRACT fuse in the engine bay fuse box. Why is the power low? Has to be a bad battery......bad cable b/t the pos post of the battery to the engine bay fuse box........possible very, very poorly grounded negative cable on the battery.

So I don't see it being a igniton switch at all. Switch has nothing to do with headlight assys going up/down or headlights coming on. None at all.

No warning lights coming on..........METER fuse gets power when the key is turned to ON. Meter fuse feeds the ALT relay in the CPU. IF the alt relay sees a GROUND on the white/black wire of the alternators small plug, then the alt relay pulls in and in turn feeds another ground to the warning light assy which causes ALL the warning lights to come on til the alternator starts spinning where upon the GND on the white/black wire goes south and the alt relay relaxes and eliminates the gnd to the warning light assy so all the warning lights now go off other than those that are showing a fault (like the rear hatch is open or the door is open etc).

Wrote too much. BAd batt or bad cables on the batt or bad cable connection from the batt pos post to the engine bay fuse box or bad gnd on the batt negative cable (bolts to one of the bolts on the starter or a nearby engine/transmission bolt (black/yellow cable as started above).

Nightstrife

wow that's outstanding advice i will take it and trace the cables tomorrow morning thank you all for your help

Nightstrife

Thank you all for your imput... i went out this mourning and discoverd i had a bad + connection to the main fusebox in the engine compartment i fixed that and the car started like it was new.... this could also be a contributing factor to my hot starting issue all along as things arnt getting enough juice to run efficiently... only time will tell about that now...\

Thank you to the Rotary Masters...