1992 240SX Starting Problems After Alternator Cable Broke: Searched...

[Thoughtful_One]

A couple of days ago I noticed that my e-brake light and battery lights were on, along with dimmer headlights. I didn't think much of it at the moment.

The next morning I go out to school, and at a huge intersection, I clutch in and give it gas, but I couldn't! The car would just bog if I give it gas. I got the car to coast long enough to get it into the median and I shut it off. tried to start it and no luck. I figured it was the alty that went out on me.

I get the car pulled to a friend's house and a tow truck comes. At this point, when I tried to start the car, I just heard clicking. The tow truck jumps my battery for just long enough so I can get onto the flat-bad fo the truck, thn I get it to my house.

That night I was peaking around and found that the large cable that went to alty was slightly burned and broke off right in my hand by barely touching it. Re-did the connector, and got a new battery (under warranty) but it still wouldn't start.

When I put my keys in, I can put the key in the igntion, and hear my fuel pump prime, as well as my electric fans turn on (they are hardwired to be on when the iginiton is on). When I go to start it, NOTHING at all happens. No clicking, or weird noises whatsoever.

I had my alty tested at Autozone and according to their machine it was fine.

So a summary of what I think happened:- for whatever reason the cable to the alty broke off and it wouldn't charge the battery.- ran on battery only for a day, and I completely depleted the charge, whis is when my car died- tow truck cam and jumped the battery and allowed the car to start

I don't know why it wouldn't at this point. I checked all the fuses and they were all fine, in the passenger and engine compartment.

So the only place that thee could be a problem is with the starter circuit. Starter, interlock relay, and ignition switch are all questionable at this point, but how do I go about testing these things?

[airman86]

if you have a multimeter, check continuity from the hot alternator cable to the positive on the battery. if you said the cable that was hanging there was burned, there is a possibility it's ruined on the wire somewhere else. i can also say from experience with cabling, i had a pair of old a** jumper cables that i tried to jump a car with, and it the car wouldn't even turn over. bought a new pair of jumper cables and it started right up. old/rusted cables can cause too much resistance leading to not enough current. also, if you have a multimeter checking the voltage on the battery in it's current state would be ideal. if it's showing ~10-12 volts, then the battery is fine and the car should start.

the "clicking", although i don't know exactly what it is besides ignition relays, is a sign that the starter isn't getting enough current to turn the engine over. either there is corrosion on the battery terminals or the battery is running low on juice. least probably scenario as far as wiring would be the battery-to-starter cable.

i'm going to blame wiring.

[Thoughtful_One]

UPDATE:

Good call airman86!

Checked over all the connections today, and I found that a small plug that goes to the alty was just hanging there...

Plugged it in, and the car started right up!

Next problem was that the battery light was still on even with the car running. I measured the voltage of the battery with the engine off, and it was 12.3V. With the engine on, voltage was 11.7...

Jiggled the large negative cable as well as the fusbile link on the positive terminal, then went and decided to take the chance of just driving to Autozone to make sure the system was or wasn't charging right.

Turned the car on and the battery light was off... The entire drive the light was off and it never came back...

When I have the time, I'm going to go over ALL connections and clean them all and replace all the low gauge wires with brand new ones...

So far so good, but I'm still keeping my eye on it.

[airman86]

awesome, good to hear we got you fixed up

one thing i like to do on my vehicles is called the "big 3" - here are some resources here:

http://www.isyougeekedup.com/t...grade/

basically you run secondary (larger gauge, like 4ga) cables which pretty much bypass the stock cabling for the same points. it says it's for car audio, but one car that I did it on ended up idling smoother. it helps with the resistance in the electrical system/etc.

[urbanskiben]

this is

awesome, good to hear we got you fixed up

one thing i like to do on my vehicles is called the "big 3" - here are some resources here:

http://www.isyougeekedup.com/t...grade/

basically you run secondary (larger gauge, like 4ga) cables which pretty much bypass the stock cabling for the same points. it says it's for car audio, but one car that I did it on ended up idling smoother. it helps with the resistance in the electrical system/etc.

that site really help ful