Hi all. I am trying to help a friend get his 74 vette running. He just bought and it was not running at the time, so had to trailer it home. Has a new battery but no power anywhere. The prev owner had replaced the ignition switch but with the wrong one. We bought the right switch and installed it thinking that would fix it. Didn't. The puzzling thing is that every once in a while with the doors open the interior lights and the buzzer wiill come on for about two seconds and go dead again. Got to thinking a short somewhere or a ground problem. The anti-theft system is unhooked at he key switch on the fender(the wires are not hooked to it). In the process of trying to trace the problem using a wiring diagram. Battery ground is good, negative side to frame and the starter bracket to the frame. I know we got a lot of tracing to do, but i am hoping that someone here might know what the problem might be and how to fix it. Thanks for any help you might give. Shoot away i'd like to hear all the possibilities.

 

Sounds like you have a ground problem or a continuity problem. Lets assume the ignition switch is installed correctly, even with the switch off you should still have power to the interior lights, since you don't, check both the wires from the battery. They may look tight but clean at each connection butthere may be a break where those wires are connectedat the ends. The neg from the battery connects to the frame and the motor should have a connection to the frame. Also check the pos side since they may look tight but that wire may not be properly attached to the end fitting.
On a 74 the seat belts must be used or the car won't start, I don't think that is the problem, but slide the seats foward and disconnect that so we can eliminate that as a possible cause. PG.

 

Yep, I will take over a cable cleaning brush and clean them. Also the previous owner has put those temporary ends on both cables so i'm leary of the connections anyway. I didn't know about the seat belt thing. I'll check that also. Thanks PG that will give me a few quick things to check out. I won't get a chance to look at it again for a couple days. I'll report back later and thanks again.
Roy

 

that is intresting...Never ran into that problem with my car. The percious owners must have disconnected that somehere along the line

 

That's why this is the best forum, we all help each other to figure these problems out, PG.

 

No power anywhere? No lights? Did you load test the bat. Just because it's new doesn't mean it's good. Clean and check the ground cable. Positive cable runs to the starter. First see if you have power there. The car picks up the rest of the power from there. and runs to the harness connector on the drivers side. Put a test light on the starter. Positive on the stud with the bat cable and use the starter case as your ground connection. If it doesn't light up there then you know the problem is in the cables. Either there bad or a bad connection. Start with the simple thing first. It's usually there.

 

Hey Rich Yep, no power anywhere. I did put a battery charger on the cables also and tried to read voltage at the starter using an amp/volt meter. I put the red probe on the big post that the battery cable hooks to on the starter and the black probe grounded to motor and still no voltage there. If cleaning the cables don't fix this i think i will use my jump start battery and hook it up directly to the battery cable post on the starter. I think that should give me full power shouldn't it? If not do you think it could be a bad selenoid not passing power to the rest of the system? Thanks Roy

 

If you are putting the test light on the battery cable on the starter and the ground on the starter and you have no power than the problem is there. It's not the solenoid because you are not getting any power to it. Get a long piece of wire and hook one end to the neg battery and the other end to the starter body. Now hook your test light to the pos. terminal on the starter and the other end to the starter body. If the test light lights ( or volt meter ) up then you know the problem is in the ground cable from the battery to the frame. Dont try to start the car with that little wire you just want to light the test light. If it doesnt light then it's the pos. cable thats bad. You can do the test the same way but be careful when you hook a wire to the pos. terminal of the battery because the other end is hot and if you touch a ground, sparks will fly!

 

pg and Rich G thanks for all your help. Sorry it took so long to get back here, but my friend had some family medical problems, so we didn't get a chance to work on his corvette until today.
The negative battery cable was corroded at the frame. We cleaned it good and retightened it. Also cleaned the positive cable while in the cleaning mood. Interior lights came on right away. And yes we did get it started and took a maden drive down the highway. Thanks a lot. Isn't this forum GREAT!
Oh yeah the seat belt doesn't affect starting this car.

 

Awesome! Another 'Vette comes back to life!

May the power of the forum be with you!

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