The Ford Barn

daveymc29 · 11-14-2014, 09:48 PM

I'm not the greatest on electrical stuff, so here is what is going on. I went out to the car and getting ready for a jaunt off to get coffee with the old guys and when I hit the starter I got a "Umph." Sounded dead so I turned on the lights, nothing. Put the charger on and that afternoon took another look at things. Light is green on the charger, indicating fully charged. Hydrometer reads about 1200+. Then I hit the starter and as before, Thump, no turn and no lights, nothing on the amp meter either. Put the charger back on and it took it a while to come back green again. I had just changed the starter and got the identical result.I tried to start to no avail and so I got out my crank and with one quarter of a lift it was running fine, lights work, horn is healthy and amp meter is just past zero on the plus side. I have 6V neg. grd. alternator that seems to work fine. Car had been running well since I installed the engine a few weeks back. I'm guessing a bad ground from the symptoms, though I have a ground strap to a tranny bolt and have all the posts and clamps cleaned to fresh metal. Any suggestions at this point? I hate pulling up the floor boards, but that is my next thought.

11-14-2014, 09:48 PM	#1
daveymc29 Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Danville, CA Posts: 1,566	Electrical Question I'm not the greatest on electrical stuff, so here is what is going on. I went out to the car and getting ready for a jaunt off to get coffee with the old guys and when I hit the starter I got a "Umph." Sounded dead so I turned on the lights, nothing. Put the charger on and that afternoon took another look at things. Light is green on the charger, indicating fully charged. Hydrometer reads about 1200+. Then I hit the starter and as before, Thump, no turn and no lights, nothing on the amp meter either. Put the charger back on and it took it a while to come back green again. I had just changed the starter and got the identical result.I tried to start to no avail and so I got out my crank and with one quarter of a lift it was running fine, lights work, horn is healthy and amp meter is just past zero on the plus side. I have 6V neg. grd. alternator that seems to work fine. Car had been running well since I installed the engine a few weeks back. I'm guessing a bad ground from the symptoms, though I have a ground strap to a tranny bolt and have all the posts and clamps cleaned to fresh metal. Any suggestions at this point? I hate pulling up the floor boards, but that is my next thought.