no start battery sparking

[fred79]

ok guys I have a no start problem, and now when I try to start the car. sparks shoot fromt the negative terminal and the lights in the car cut and all internal accesories. the power doesn't return for a while and I hear a clicking noise sometimes. in fact when I went to the front and looked under the hood the hood light blinked repeatedly. any one have any idea what could cause this. the starter was just replaced a few weeks ago and I just finished installing a new radiator.I have blown fuse #5 twice I can;t find any bad connections. I need this car on the road like yesterday any help would be appreciated.

 

[SHOZ123]

Sounds like the battery terminal is loose.

 

[fred79]

nope i just had the battery tested it is fine the terminal was on so tight I had to hit it with a hammer to get it off. ok let me chack some wireing with you the positive(red) terminal should connect to the b terminal on the starter and the black lead should connect to the bolt attaching the starter to the transmission. and the starter switch should be attatched to the selonoid. I am pretty sure that right. the power is now dead in cabin if you put key in and turn you never get lights or accessories. but the all ways on accesories are still powered like the seats. could it be a ingnition switch does that ocntrol the power to the computers,radio, ect.

 

[SHOZ123]

The only way you would get sparks at the terminal is for the cable to be loose or the post to be broken, maybe internally.

The other wiring is done in the proper places. That battery is toast and is in danger of blowing up. Beware.

 

[SableSal]

Bad Battery or Short to ground.




Sal

 

[sho_me92]

it would have to be bad connection

 

[projectSHO89]

It HAS to be either the battery terminal or the connection between the post and the connector or the connector and the rest of the cable.

I'd replace the whole negative cable at this point. It's probably toasted.

I'd also pull the starer motor and have it tested. It may be pulling excessive current.

Steve

 

[fred79]

ok i just finished chnging the starter it was pulling 18v it must have been defective (less than 2 months old). I still have no power to the hole car and I think I may have blown a fusable link since all the fuses are good, and I i don't havve power past the battery. so I am trying to find the links.

 

[ohfosho]

check all of your fuses (most likely one of the ones in the engine bay), recheck the wiring to and from the start since that was last touched. and replace the battary if it is not fixed yet. dying/faulty battaries play dirty tricks.

 

[SHOZ123]

ok i just finished chnging the starter it was pulling 18v it must have been defective (less than 2 months old). ........

I'm confused. In the normal sense you pull amperage. Voltage is the available pressure so to speak.

If you have 18v at the battery and the car is not running the battery is definitely bad.

But it sounds to me like the reading you are getting is from an alternator the is not seeing the battery load and is running unregulated.

Either the battery is bad or the cable is. Get an ohm meter and measure the resistance between the negative battery post and the engine block when the car is off.

Anything over 1 ohm is trouble. Should be less than .1 but this depends on the quality of the meter.

 

[fred79]

I had the starter tested at an advanced auto parts store they told me it took 18v of electricity to get it to run.
I finally found the problem the positive battery wire had corroded on its terminal and had broken off half in and half out of the terminal, this meant if I hit the right bump it would nock it out of connection but could be bumped right back easily. I figure it caused the starter to short and that was causing the rest of my problems. I put a new terminal on for now but I am going to have to replace the whole cable, I foulnd it while I was trying to find the fusable links, aparently I no longer have any they where all removed. I think I will be replacing them with fuses.