Okay, so a little about the car. Originally 1988 305 TBI, now it is a 383 carb, no ECM.

Had a holley 670 on it and it ran fine. Then I got antsy and decided to try out a holley 750. Car cranked, but I could never get the 750 to start...so I slapped the 670 back on for now. Went to start it up and all you hear is a click then all lights go out and all electrical power is gone, no cranking what so ever.

Battery is a fairly new interstate. Like I said this exact set-up ran perfectly fine before I messed with the carbs.

I unhooked the battery, let it sit, hooked it back up and electrical power came back (dome light on). Go to start it and same thing, once that key hits start position I lose all electrical power. All my grounds are good. I am stumped as to why it would crank w the 750, but cut out completely with the 670 back on.

 

Going to charge battery overnight and try again tomorrow...

 

It sounds like the battery needs to be charged up, let us know if that worked for you.

 

I'm with Edward. That definitely sounds like a dead battery to me. Just toss some jumper cables on it, you'll know pretty darned quick

 

Make sure your cables are nice and tight at the battery and starter. And make sure they aren't corroded.

 

Tried it this morning, same thing. Battery is fully charged and I made sure the terminals were clean. I guess the starting circuit has circuit breakers somewhere along the line?

 

Well, if the ECM was removed, there's no telling what you have for wiring.

Here's the wiring diagram for your year (body).. It shows the ignition wiring path in the lower right. IF it's not been changed.

http://austinthirdgen.org/mkportal/m..._continued.gif

 

How are you positive that the battery isn't the fault? Did you attempt a jump, or just going off the fact that you had it on the charger?

If the battery is bad, being on the charger all night wouldn't fix it. This also doesn't rule out a possible bad battery charger.

The only way to rule out the battery completely is to hook it up to another running vehicle with jumper cables and see if you can get it to turn over at all, or borrow the battery from said vehicle, if it's compatible.

 

Guess I had to get the + terminal spotless, because I cleaned it and cleaned it and just about when I had ruled that out she cranked. RUNNING like a champ now....off to dial in the TV cable from bowtie overdrive.

Thanks for the quick reply guys, I'm so glad thirdgen.org exists, wouldn't have been able to do this 383 project without you guys.

 

You called it zombienerd

 

Glad to have helped! Those terminals can look clean and still give bad connections Especially if they're factory terminals, inside the sealed plastic can look Horrible!

 

Yes sir off and running glad we could help, let us know how fast she is but don't kill yourself doing it.