I was driving in to work today and while on the interstate the car seemed to lose all power for like 5 seconds, everything was dead and then it all came back on like nothing had happened. Its never done that before and kind of shocked me. It has a new alt and battery. The only thing I could guess would be possibly the ignition switch on its way out or perhaps the starter having issues on the wiring side. When I go to start the car after turning the key to the start position it will take a second or so before the starter actually engages. Kind of a wierd delay there. The starter seems to sound fine other than that. I have no idea if those 2 parts have ever been replaced or not. So its kind of a guessing game now.

Anyone have any thoughts on that or if I may have missed something that would trigger the same effect ? It hasnt happen again yet but dont want to get stranded in the cold if it decides to die permanently

Any input welcome
Kaycee

 

Start at the battery and work your way out through the rest of the system.

Check all battery electrical connections, including battery post connectors, clamps on the battery wire at the battery end and the battery ground wire. I had a car lose power like that due to corroded connections right at the battery.

After checking all the battery connections carefully, take a close look at both ends of the main power wire that feeds the power distribution hub under the hood from the battery. Make sure the grounding wire to the engine block looks good on both ends. There is also a large wire feeding from the battery to the alternator, make sure it looks good on both ends, and isn't loose at the alternator since it was just replaced.

There is probably a large connector feeding power through the fire wall to the fuse box inside, make sure it hasn't gotten knocked loose, it was on a older car but that happened to a friend of mine recently.

Its also possible that you have a bad ignition switch or corroded or loose switch connector, so if you can get access to it easily make sure the switch connector is still tight.

If can't find the problem, when it happens again see if the horn still honks or the head lights will come on when it happens, if so it means the problem is in the ignition switch or further on, if not then you have a basic wiring problem in your battery connections.

I suppose its possible that the problem could also be in the battery itself, pretty rare I would think but possible if the strap between two adjacent cells in the battery was loose or cracked.

Good luck-

Paul T.

 

Well confirmed that the headlights and everything else stayed on except the motor when it decided to do it more frequently tonight on me. I could hear the fuel pump recycle like it does when the key is turned on for the couple seconds. Sometimes it will start right up other times it will wind over for a while then decide to fire up.

I guess I'll have to meter out the ol switch when it warms back up outside .

Thanks for the info and any other opinions always accepted
Kaycee

 

Well the next day update. I took the alternator up to get tested and at first the guy hooked it up wrong and then he fixed that and it said failed. Whats wierd was I disconnected the pos battery cable while running to see if it would continue to run and it did. It was only pushing 12.6 to 13.1 volts but most of the time it was 12.6. I tested the spark while running and it stopped when the motor did and fuel pressure was present. Tomorrow a new alt will be in and we'll see from there. I replaced the coil and spark brain in the distributor as well.

Kaycee

 

Make sure the wires on the starter are tight.
Disconnect the battery before messing with them.
I had the fusible link wires loose there and it drove me nuts for a month until I found them.
Just thought of it and figured it could be related.

 

Something else to check, my friend's 89 GTA had a very similar problem. The positive cable on his car is routed from the left side of the car across the radiator and over to the right. The cable strap had broken, and the positive cable would every once in awhile contact the power steering pulley and ground out. Just an idea

 

Well after finally getting the new alt installed with a new coil and brain pack inside the dizzy all seems to be good once again other than a lil noisy fuel pump that I have going on. That part I can deal with until it dies which it better not do since its only a few months old but since everything is made in china or mexico who knows ;0. I sure miss when we made our own parts in the good ol USA and they actually lasted longer than the car

Thanks again to everyone who shared their comments on this one it helped isolate things down for me

Until the next glitch
Kaycee