I feel like I've been devirginified or something, because I
just ran headlong into my first major stranded-by-Lucas failure in
my Midget 1500.
My short-tempered friend was the only one available for
towing me home, so I didn't get at much debugging done as I
would have hoped. I only got a few minutes before it was
"get a jump start now or never" because he needed to hit
a chicken wing place or something. Weird, because he owns
a Triumph TR6, you'd think he'd be a little more consoling. But
I digress.
Anyways, the symptoms were at first, turn the key to start
the car. Click, then totally nothing. Lights don't work, car
won't click again on start, nothing.
I pushed the car to a safe spot, and checked the obvious
with what I had. Seems ok, the cable to connect the battery
to the body seems a little frail but still connecting strong
enough that I couldn't break it with my bare hands. Alternator
belt was installed and seemed tight.
One probably important test. Battery voltage is 12V, but
flicking the headlight switch to ON drops that voltage to
3 or 4 volts so no suprise why the lights don't work. I suspect
the same thing happens to the battery voltage when I start
the car.
After some poking and prodding, nothing. So we did a quick
test, with the jumper cables in the "jump start" position with
his monster-truck style jeep. Quick test shows that I can
run my headlights when connected to his electrical system, so
it's seems like it's not a major short.
So we go ahead and jump start the car, and I get the car
running in the parking lot. Symptoms are tach doesn't work,
spedometer doesn't work, fuel gauge doesn't work, signal
lights don't work. But the car runs fine so there is no
ignition-type problems.
(weird point, signal lights dead, but 4-way flashers
work, at least they flash the left side lights but that's
all they ever did anyways in my ownership)
Next interesting point, try to turn on headlights, car
dies immediately. So we jump start it again. I follow him
home with no lights and no dashboard. No burning smells,
no smoke, car runs fine.
When I get home and park it where I can work on it, shut
it down with no problems. I test the headlights, they seem
to work fine. So I try to start the car, click. Dead, and
now the headlights are dead too.
Any ideas? I am hoping it's just the battery or alternator
can't produce any significant charge to start the car, but can these
types of things appear spontaneously? I don't remember having
any "weak sounding" starts in the past, I'm a little reluctant
to beleive that it just... died.
I'm charging the battery now, and I'm going to replace
the frail earthing cable. But even if that seems to solve
the problem, I'm far from confident.
Also, would the tach, spedometer, and fuel gauge not working
be symptomatic of a low system voltage? I'd hate to think I
have a problem beyond the battery/cabling/alternator section that
causes more failures. I can deal with replacing the alternator,
I'd hate to have to tear down the whole thing.
Enough rambling for now, can anyone lend some comments?
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Trevor Boicey 1992 Celica GT (95% of the driving I do)
Computer Engineer 1975 MG Midget (95% of the repairs I do)
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