Queensland P76 Owners Club Inc. 2003

No POWER

Yowee tales #2

Well guess what I went out to start the Marina and found that I had no power at all. (trusty light test - nought, no light on the dash when I turned the key on) Major failure, a fuse maybe, so out with the wiring diagram fuses none so what is it??????
Best investment you can have is a multimeter, so out it comes, turn the knob to measure DC volts and probes onto the battery. ( 12 .75 volts ), so that is a good start.
Next onto the fuse box to see whether the fuses have gone splut. No voltage on the baterry side so the problem is back towards the battery. I am luck ( or may be not) I have a amphere meter in the circuit (in line device), so could that be the cause still no voltage, checked that I had the negative probe on the earth point.

Heavy red wires go to Amp meter in cabin

Because of the amp meter you have to series up electrics from the battery to the rest of the car.

Notice the bolt has a blackish coating on the thread and the terminal lugs of the amp meter cable

I said to my self the only thing left is the starter solenoid, shawly it would be that, so I put the probe onto the cable terminal from the battery to the solenoid, voltage. Next I put it onto the other side of the battery terminal find that I had no voltage. Bingo I found the problem.
I said to myself how come there is no voltage on one side of the bolt and is on the other?
Upon investigation I found corrosion on the surface of the bolt , nut and on the terminal connectors. You could not see the corrison like that on a battery terminal.
Cleanling the surfaces and slightly lubricating the terminals coper bolt and nut fixed the problem.
I was reading later in the workshop manual how you can make some test leads to assist in finding these type of faults if you have not got a multimeter. Consists of a light globe housing, a bulb and some wires.

Schematic of the circuit.
Last updated
Feb, 2006
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