'72 Cutlass Electrical Problem

[shaolin.138]

So I have a weird issue. With all of my lights off, my turn signals and hazards work perfectly. When I turn on my parking or headlights, all lights work AND my right side turn signals work. But the left side turn signals don't. Again, they ALL work with the lights off.

Then, my car just stopped starting. No clicks. No anything. Gauges work. Lights work. Gauge reads 13 volts. Multimeter at the battery reads 12.6. WHAT GIVES???



Thanks in advance guys!

[kevvingib]

Could be a bad ground point that is impacting the charging of the battery. The battery needs to be grounded to block, block to shell and block to frame. if you are using an alternator that is plated you need to remove all coating or plating at the bolt mounting points as that is where the alt grounds.

[MonzaRacer]

I agree its most likely grounding issues. I prefer replacing grounds after using liquid tining compound and soldering already crimped ends, but thats me.
If the battery is remote mounted in trunk several grounds trouigh out the car are needed. Also remember to ground radiator support to the frame as the rad support is mounted to rubber mounts limiting that connection.
Even if you have battery ground to the block add couple of braided stainless straps to the frame and firewall.
when i helped buddy rebuild his car we had two braided straps to permanent studs made into the frame, also used same post for block to frame grounds. And from my CB days we even grounded fenders, rad support and hood and firewall all with smaller braided ground straps(this was to isolate ground plane interference from engine getting transmitted and making CB noisy. OH yeah if alternator or brackets ar painted or podercoated or even plated you will need a sand wheel to knock that off. We had a piece of sand paper, 50 grit, and a bolt and washer setup we could chuck in drill and sand off just enough to make good connections. I also used dielectric grease at each mounting point.

[shaolin.138]

Great tips. It JUST started doing this and nothing was wrong before I parked it last week. Started fine and drove fine. I wonder if my starter went kaput?

It did try to turn over once... and I let the key go before it caught because it had cranked for a while... which is normal, usually starts a little slow. Next turn of the key usually lights it off. This time... nada!