Projects 41 Ford won't do... anything?

Hey ya'll, i have a 41 Ford Tudor sedan which up until this point has worked more or less perfectly for the last 2+ years until about 5 days ago i went to start it up and nothing happened. The starter button does nothing, the light switch does nothing, ignition switch doesn't seem to do anything. The car is 8 volt positive ground with an alternator that has been converted to 8 volt. I've been running around with my multimeter and not getting anywhere. The battery is charged to 8.2 volts. Leaving one end on my negative post on the battery, each ground strap (battery to firewall and firewall to engine) has 8.2 volts. i can touch any point on the engine and still have 8.2 volts. moving inside the car i can touch the starter button and get 8.2 volts, light switch has 8.2 and the ignition switch as well. The part that has me stumped is this is all with everything off. As soon as i turn a switch on all voltage drops to 0. Ignition switch and light switch both kill all voltage as soon as you turn them on. Also the starter button does nothing more than make a ground to the dash when you press it so why the heck doesnt it work? Any advice would be appreciated

 

Positive earth systems create their own corrosion which will cause problems. Worst affected connection is the battery positive. Disconnect, clean up (wire brushes, emery, fine fine) and reassemble with dielectic grease. You might be seeing voltage but any load could be killing it. Worth having the battery checked out too.

Chris

 

Clean your grounds would be my first thought after reading the situation

 

I cleaned my grounds at the firewall already, ill investigate the battery but everything "looks" clean. also i tried jumping the starter solenoid and nothing happened there either. I'm wondering if the battery could be reading 8 volts but have a bad cell and not be powerful enough to do anything.

 

I just replaced the battery in my truck. AZ put their meter on it, full voltage but guy said “yep, definitely bad”. Wouldn’t make a click on the solenoid, but radio and key chimes still came on.

 

I'm going to re-clean all my ground connections under the hood and maybe replace my ground straps and get my battery tested and report back.

 

I had a battery once that checked full voltage but yet no power to the system. After pulling out my hair I found battery had a open connection under positive terminal inside battery. When I was pushing down with probe it would touch together and give a reading. When I took off probe it opened up. Yeah a wierd problem but it happened to me.

 

Check for corrosion between the wire/cable and the terminals on the battery cables. or a bad connection in one. That would allow it to have enough connection to show volts but not handle any real load.

 

An old electrician I knew always said " electricity is funny stuff" . He was a skilled trades leader at a Ford plant. He always fixed what no one else could.........

 

Get yourself a low beam / high beam head light. Mount it on your bench or somewhere you will see it if it comes on. Solder two wires to the terminals and use this to test circuits.

 

For certain the main ground.

 

I had an OT car with something similar. I ended up looking at the + battery cable end. I peeled back the insulation behind the clamp and it was green. This car was swapped from a side terminal battery to a top terminal by the PO.

 

Get a tester that puts a load on the battery. I got mine at Tractor Supply. Hook it to the battery, flip the switch, watch the needle swing when you place a load on the battery. Mine is 12 volt and 6 volt scales, but you should still be able to use the 6 volt scale by noting how much above 6 it reads with and without a load. I’ve had several batteries fully charged to 12 volts fresh off the charger as soon as you put the load on them drop to nearly nothing. Voltage was there, but no amperage.

 

By the way fellers, it was my battery. The guy at interstate said it had voltage and my water levels were fine but it was only at 40%. He told me to put it on a low amp charger for 24-48 hours and re try so i did just that and it worked. I did go ahead and replace my ground straps while i was waiting for my battery to charge. Thanks for the think tank.

 

Thank you for the update!

 

Had a friend with a Jensen Healey that had really weird problems with gauges and turn signals. Had it to several shops nobody could figure it out. I ran a dedicated ground wire to instrument cluster and all problems went away