Car won't start at work....

[Sho-Driver]

I'm at work today and I go to start '92 SHO and it will not crank over. Normally this would not be a huge problem, but I'm not at my own garage with tools were I can take time and troubleshoot.

Here's the story:

It seems that I only have problems on my '92 when I don't drive it for a few days, this is no exception. I went on vacation and let the car sit in the garage for almost a week. I get back yesterday and when I open the door, I note that the interior lights do not come on. I turn on the headlights and no worky. I test the battery with my multi-meter and come up with nothing. Next, I hooked up my trickle charger and I could not even get a spark out of the leads when I hooked them up. I pull my other car up and jump the car and it starts fine. I run the car around town for a little to charge the battery.

Today, I was able to start the car on its own power when I head into work. When lunch time came around, I went out to get some lunch and the car craps out again. When I turned the ignition on, the lamp test and chime would function as normal. As soon as I tried to crank the car, the car completely loses power.

I then tried to have someone jump my car. The car would lamp test fine, but still would not crank. After a few tries, the lamp test would not even come on and that was with a jump. Now the car will not do anything. There is absolutely no power when I flip the ignition key. I pulled some of the **** fuses in the engine bay to see if any were blown and when I reinstalled them, I could see a tiny spark indicating there is power getting to them.

Prior to letting the car sit for a week, the car had no indications of any unnecessary power draw or problem with the wiring or ignition. The positive battery cable has just a tiny bit of corrosion on it, but nothing to be worried about IMO. The battery is definitely dead as I could hear the other guy’s car struggling when I hooked it to my battery. Now I can't get power period so I cannot even push start the car.

I've got limited tools here and cannot jack up the car in the parking lot. I'm pretty sure I'll have to tow the car home to work on it.

Any suggestions to shorten (no pun intended) my electrical problem are appreciated.

TIA,


EDIT: I also must add that I've had electrical problems with this car before. The dash lights quit working because of a short and I had to completely rewire the circuit (light blue/red wire).

 

[Sho-Driver]

Bump...

 

[Off Road SHO]

J,

Sounds like you have a shorted battery cell. Sediment builds up at the bottom of the cell(s) and shorts the negative to positive plate. The alternator's regulator sees low voltage and tries to crank out more power which causes more outgassing which will corrode your terminals very quickly. Most battery chargers need at least 8 -10 volts in the battery before they will output charge current, especially trickle chargers.

Tom

 

[Sho-Driver]

Tom,

The battery is less than a year old and I cannot even get power when connected to another known good battery in a car that is running. The more I think about it, it seems like *one* of the problems is I may have a bad connection from the battery to the starter. I have the old set of wires from my other car after moving the battery to the trunk. If I could just get power to the car, I can pop start it and get it home.

 

[Sho-Driver]

I took my lunch break today to go work on the car. The problem turned out to be what I thought it was. The battery cables had lots of corrosion running up the positive cable (barely any visable corrosion until I cut the wire back). I used the known good cables I pulled off the other SHO and the car fired right up.