vince-z28

So basically I have a 1991 350 camaro with auto trans. i took it out the other day and drove it for about 25 minutes. I parked it for 5 minutes and when I went to start it again I heard a click and then everything was dead, no sounds, no lights, nothing electrical works. the start wound engage, the lights don't work, the electric door locks, and hatch release wont work. So basically the car is dead, the battery is new and has plenty of juice. please guys I need some ideas of what I can check!!

mwarner44

Make sure the ground cable on the battery is tight. If not that, check the cables that go to the starter and alternator for tightness too.

vince-z28

battery cables and alternator are tight I'll check the starter asap

89newfun

iTrader: (3)

Definately make sure those are good and tight as posted above.. Also check where the grounds are connected to the body of the car to make sure they didnt corrode off.. I think one is on the pass side near the strut tower base (this one is the one that goes to the neg battery post). The other one is at the firewall to engine block. Did you check the volts on the battery, after the no start? to see if maybe there was a drain on it, or even maybe the alt wasnt charging it.

vince-z28

ok so everything seems nice and tight at the three points mentioned above. the grounds seem good except for the one that goes from the engine block to the firewall, it looks like it should be replaced but its still connected. I tried putting the key in the ignition again and I got a bit of life, when I turned it to accessory I got my power locks, some dash lights and the hatch release working but as soon as I tried to turn it over it made a click like the starter wanted to engage and then I lost everything again, I left it alone for a couple minutes, put the key back in and I had accessory, then I tried putting it in neutral and turning the key to start it and I lost everything again. Some weird behavior going on, I was thinking maybe neutral safety switch might be messed up but could that really take out everything on the car? oh and the battery had 12.5 volts after trying to start it.

mwarner44

This exact same thing happened to me a while back and it was a loose battery cable. You might check the fusible link too, it could be broken but barely making a connection.

vince-z28

the battery connections are not loose, how would I test the fusible link?

Hollywood383

Check the fuse links at the starter... That sounds like your issue. Use a test light or a meter. I relocated all my fuse links to a more accessable place on my last 3rd gen just because of this problem.

vince-z28

OK ill check the link going to the starter, I'll post some results when I get a chance (its raining today)

vince-z28

Ok so car is fixed, turns out it was a bad connection at the starter and the vats was acting up as well, so I re did a connection to the starter and bypassed the vats system (something I wanted to do anyway) and now all is well.