I installed a new summit 600 cfm carb on my 85 T/A. as i was tuning it in today the engine just shut off. wouldnt start back. wont even turn over, the interior lights that are supposed to be on with the door open arent even on. its like the battery is disconnected. i took the terminals off cleaned them reinstalled them and even went as far as replacing every fuse in the block.. this has got me stumped. one thing im not sure if this is related or not.... the previous owner had a toggle switch in the car that had to be flipped to start the car and flipped the opposite way to shut it off. the fans and everything would come on when the switch is flipped. so i replaced the switvh with one from auto zone that looked exactly the same. STILL nothing. im stuck guys please help. the thing was running so good too such a dissapointment

 

another thing. one side of the switch was wired into the ecm fuse. the other was wired into the PWR accessory port. then there was a white wire which i traced up to the fan , it was wired into the ignition spot on the fuse block

 

nobody knows what this could be??

 

my car almost has the same problem. 4/5 times i go to start it and i turn the key and *CLICK* everything dies. if the dome light is on it shuts off and even my stereo which is wired directly to the battery shuts off. but i mess with the battery contacts and it just fixes itself. and even then messing with the connections only fixes it 1/2 the time and i have to disconnect the battery for about a minute and when i put it back in it then will start.

so it seems i have the same problem to a lesser degree. but idk what is happening

 

Man that sucks... mine did that a lot before. I'd be happy with even a click now. I can't get the smallest sign of life out of it. I don't know what to do. It shutting off like it did sounds like something electrical fried. Hope its nothing too expensive

 

Is the battery fully charged ?
Is the Alt charging the battery when it is running
Will the starter crank the engine over if you jump the S terminal to Batt pos terminal ? ( shows no a battery problem)

 

Battery shows fully charged when it was running. Do alternator is charging. Tried to hook up a jumpbox and still nothing. I will try to jump it off from terminal tomorrow. . Thanks for the help. I'll see if it works

 

i dont think that could help because you said the lights wont even come on, its not that it wont crank. so yea the starter and the battery may be fine but nothing else gets power. i would have to guess it would be the battery isnt getting a good ground to the frame. like a bad wire or something finally rusted through.

Hey while you were installing the carb did you happen to wash out the engine cavity? or get something in there wet? because if you did i may know why

 

No I didn't get nothing wet. It was a pretty simple swap over I washed the engine bay out bout two months ago. The grounds should be good since I replaced the cables a few weeks back. I will double check though

 

dang... because my problem started after i washed everything in there. might have washed a little to hard >_> but yea wouldn't hurt to check anyway

 

I thought it might have something to do with the toggle switch. Its was wired into the ecm fuse. I tried unhooking all the wired to it before and tried to start it but again it had no power. I don't see why it wouldn't start after just unhooking the switch. But it seemed like the switch controlled the power. But I've replaced it. It really is driving me insane. Ive never ran into this before

 

What is happening is the wiring harness is damaged: The PO was too cheap to repair it correctly and "fixed it" with a bypass switch. obviously not fixed correctly.


You could spend a few minutes or hours with a test light /multi meter trying to repair someone else's hack job. but before you address this, let's start with the basics:

First: Get the service manual with wiring diagrams. Read the chapter on electrical repair and troubleshooting.

Second: is battery fully charged? if yes then proceed to testing the ignition circuit / charging circuit / main harness etc.

If no, then charge the battery first. With a fully charged battery start testing.
You probably have a bad alternator or the alternator wiring is damaged. if the battery is 5+ years old is should be replace with new.. if the battery will not hold a charge of receive a charge from alterator this will create all sorts of problems.

Take the battery and alternator to a parts house and have them bench tested. even with a carb use at least a 90 amp alternator


In the long run you may be better off replacing the engine & ECM harnesses and the body harness.

 

Man. So much work for some idiots quick fix. This is crazy. I hate wiring. But I guess if its the only option I got.......

 

Was chasing some wires just now under steering column. Found a aftermarket security box. Unhooked it... still nothing. I also found just a bunch of stray wires.

 

BWHAHAHAHAHAHA

thats exactly what i saw when i started poking around in my car after i got it. im looking at it thinking "what......the.......F**K?????" wires everywhere, probably should have been a red flag when the guy i was buying the car from was only a year older than me. he had the stereo speakers wired into the dash lights XD so as soon as you turned the lights on it shorted the stereo. and he never told me about the kill switch under the dash either. spent 2 days trying to figure out why it wouldn't start and i poked around deeper and found this wadd of electrical tape. i grabbed it and was like "this feels like a switch" so i clicked it and my car started up just fine.

so yea, your not the only one who has gone through that, i feel ya