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This past weekend, I decided to start my car. The battery was dead so I used my jump pack and the car roared to life for about 10 seconds and then totally died. And when I say died, everything went dead like someone pulled the plug on it. This happened each of the three times I attempted to start it up. The Powermaster 140amp alternator is not even two years old and I am running 2 gauge battery and alternator wiring. The fuses are fine as well as the grounds. This is the first time it ever happened to my car. Any ideas?
Gotta' start somewhere,.... Fusible links @ the starter on the "power" side,...... and check Negative Battery cable ground @ the block & the body. I wouldn't just tug & look,.... I'd loosen all the hardware and re-torque.
Fusible links often fail in an "intermittent" way,.... They might check-out OK when probing and the key is OFF,..... but test results will change when there is a 'load' on the circuit.
Not a bad idea to load-test the battery too; just so that you can remove it from the list of suspect parts.
I just got my order of new fusible links in 8 AWG size since I'm running 2 gauge positive and negative alternator and battery cables. A bit overkill and since I'm down by the starter, going to heat wrap the wiring there. Grounds are ok btw. As for the battery, I'm just going to ditch the Costco one in there now and get an O'Reily's one even though I'm fairly certain they're both made by the same manufacturer.
Probably a loose battery terminal or bad ground. As previously said, pull on the cables and ensure everything is connected properly; could be a fuseable link but I would put more stock into a loose connection. Easy to test with a multimeter- after the car has died test voltage at the battery and then voltage at the alternator output and starter positive to see if you are getting solid battery voltage to the engine. Also charge the battery until you have at least 12.6 volts, if you are using a smart jumper that cuts off when it sees alternator output and the battery is dead, the car will die.
This weekend I directly hooked up my jump pack to the battery cables without the battery and the car started up fine and stayed on no problem once I disconnected the jump pack. But, later in the day, I tried to to the same thing with the same, and recharged jump pack and the car died after 10 seconds. Got a new battery yesterday and will try again this weekend. I popped it in the car, just didn't connect the cables yet as not to potentially drain it. The grounds and ground straps are fine. Fusible links seem ok. Haven't been able to get under the car, just from what I can see to the starter through the headers.
