TedG Posted May 15, 2022 Share Posted May 15, 2022 Strange happening yesterday. Started and pulled my 1931 Chevrolet Independence out of the garage and went into the house just briefly. On return, all electrical is gone on the car. Starter, headlights, horn are all deader then a door nail. Had a battery tender on it and it shows the green light full battery charge. I had assumed the starter blew a fuse but that doesn't explain why the entire system is down. What gives? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hook Posted May 15, 2022 Share Posted May 15, 2022 Since you started it OK and moved it, it sounds more like a loose or corroded connection happen before or after you turned it off to go into the house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocketraider Posted May 15, 2022 Share Posted May 15, 2022 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunsmoke Posted May 15, 2022 Share Posted May 15, 2022 If all original electrics, these cars only had one fuse, located at ammeter which only was on circuit for horn and headlights/parklights. It would not affect starter. Check cables battery to ground, battery to starter, and starter switch. Sometimes the depressing of the starter switch does not make full contact at starter. The fact lights etc don't work suggests bad ground or battery cable connections. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryB Posted May 15, 2022 Share Posted May 15, 2022 Or the battery just up and quit. Battery cables and connections do seem suspicious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TedG Posted May 16, 2022 Author Share Posted May 16, 2022 It turned out to be a bad cell in a relatively new battery. It had tested fine for voltage but when pressed to deliver it choked. Thanks ALL! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hook Posted May 17, 2022 Share Posted May 17, 2022 19 hours ago, TedG said: It turned out to be a bad cell in a relatively new battery. It had tested fine for voltage but when pressed to deliver it choked. Thanks ALL! I had a car in the 90's do that. Everything fine, come home from the grocery store, turned off the car and that was that. It had a short in the battery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryB Posted May 17, 2022 Share Posted May 17, 2022 (edited) I owned a Honda motorcycle that had a battery just up and die like that at the most inopportune time. I rode with some Harley Davidson friends to a Harley dealer open house that was a fund raiser for Muscular Distrophy. When we went to leave I pressed the start button on my Honda and nothing happened, not even a click. I was parked in a sea of HD motorcycles and my Honda, being a dual sport, stuck out like a sore thumb. After some troubleshooting I figured it had to be the battery. I removed the battery and took it into the HD service area to get it checked, sure enough it had a bad cell. I had to buy a new battery that sported a big HD emblem on it to get me on the road again. My HD buddies thought it was wonderful that a HD part was needed to get a Honda back on the road, I didn’t quite share in their excitement. So when you said what happened I knew there was some chance it could be the battery. Edited May 17, 2022 by TerryB (see edit history) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TedG Posted May 18, 2022 Author Share Posted May 18, 2022 Had not occurred to me a battery could test good and still not function due to a bad cell. Wish I had known that before we tore the under dash wiring apart! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Str8-8-Dave Posted May 18, 2022 Share Posted May 18, 2022 (edited) I just failed a battery in an electric start generator, an 18 amp/hr. sealed, valve regulated lead/acid battery with a plastic case. It took a charge just fine but when I hit the start button it went "click" and that was all she wrote. I discovered this while readying the generator to sell to my stepson. I didn't even test it after, I'd seen this movie before. The battery sat in the generator for a couple of years with no attention and became discharged leaving it a sitting duck for freezing in a cold garage. That distorted the plates in on cell, the case was locally bulged adjacent to cell that failed. Hitting it with the starting load was the last straw, it broke a connection in the cell causing the battery to fail. A few days and $38 later the E-bay replacement battery showed up, was installed and made the starter happy again. My stepson that bought the generator is particularly proud of the arrangement, he won't have to stress his Arnold Schwarzenegger body pulling the ripcord on the 11hp OHV Briggs motor-vator... Edited May 18, 2022 by Str8-8-Dave add/edit text (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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