He loves me, He LOVES ME NOT!

[neophyteguy]

Well, thanks to all the help of you fine people here on AULRO, I have been driving my 71 S2a for the last few months. It has been a treat and has done everything I have asked of it. It doesnt get heaps of km's on it, but it does get driven nonetheless.

About a month ago I got in, started it, let it warm up and then started to drive off. After about a metre, it cut off. Not just stalled mind you, but there were no idiot lights on the dash. So I'm thinking "great, another electrical gremlin" right?

So, I go out of town for a couple of weeks and when I get back I decide to have a look at the issue. I put the key in, it starts right up- no problems. I have since started it 4-5 times and it has started "first time, every time"!

I went out to take it for a drive this morning, go through my routine of letting it warm up a bit while I load up and get in to drive off. Once again, within a metre or two, it stalls and all the lights go off again.

I really dont know where to even begin with this one. Has anyone got any ideas or heard of this one before?

Thanks in advance for any help you guys can offer.

Cheers,
Ronnie

[neophyteguy]

Thanks NM! I actually replaced all the cables a while back and I also ensured all the ground straps were replaced and cleaned the actual grounding points.

The vehicle was already warm when I started, so I dont think the extra metre or so would have pushed it over the edge.

I really need to get this sorted, so thanks in advance for any help anyone can offer.

Thanks again NM!
Ronnie

[Dinty]

G'day All, If you are still running the original wiring loom for the vehicle, it could have a dry joint in the wire (loom) that runs from ign sw/to coil, try running a paralell wire from ign sw to coil, that will tell you over a long period of time if thats what the problem is, hope thats of some help cheers Dennis

[Blknight.aus]

my money says that its one of the 2 fuses up on the fire wall with a dosgy connection, the connection to the keyswitch or the contacts in the switch.

if it turns out to be the switch let me know I have a couple of good ones left you can have for postage.

[d@rk51d3]

Overload in the voltage regulator?

ie, fine when ticking over, but give it some herbs to get the genny spinning (or start the vehicle moving), and push up the current and get some sort of short, or trip?

[zulu Delta 534]

With the age of these beasts my guess is that somewhere along the line one or more of your electrical joins or contacts aren't as good as they should be. As Dave said, start at the fuse, clean up every joint (small wire brush, emery paper or nail file) as much as possible and refit them, look at the plugs on the regulator and plugs on the fuse block, these can often corrode up out of sight and severely limit your current flow. Check all your wire joins.
If you get in behind the dash, check the spade fittings on the Amp gauge as well as anywhere else you can think of.
The car is old and so is the electricity, therefore it will have a rest at every possible chance. Believe me, I am at that same age!
Regards
Glen

[neophyteguy]

Firstly, thanks to you all for offering me some different ways to tackle this! You guys/gals really are a wealth of information.......Cheers

I wasn't around STNDUP for a couple of weeks, so I didn't have time to work on the fault. However, it did give me some time to mull over everyone's thoughts and put together a plan of attack.

As the fault seemed to go appear after the initial starting cycle, I decided to blueprint the voltages to the ignition switch, starter, etc. to determine a steady state voltage pattern to different points in the ignition loop. I also noticed at the time that if I turned the key on and off that the idiot lights would come on as they should. (If you remember, they would not come back on after actually starting the car, but I hadn't realised they would come on if I just turned the key on and off).

I then started the vehicle and it fired right up ( I love this thing!). I then mapped the same voltages I had done previously. Then I turned of the vehicle. When I turned the key back to the on position, the idiot lights didn't come back on-so I had successfully duplicated the fault.

Then i mapped the voltages for the third time and noticed that the 12V which had previously been to the back of the switch was no longer available. It was now around 1.5V..................So, I tracked back to the starter relay and found that there was 12V coming in, but the cable going to the back of the switch only had 1.5V. I then pulled the connector off the relay and checked the prong on the relay and it had 12V! WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!

Turns out that the connector was corroded and so was the prong on the relay. I sanded both the connector and the prong , put some dielectric grease on and that sorted all the problems.

So, if there is any knowledge I can pass along about this it's that if you run across a fault that is oddly intermittent, try to map out what the system looks like in a faultless, steady state...........

Thanks again everyone!

Oh yeah, I'll always come back and post my resolve!

Cheers,
Ronnie