Help w/ a wierd electrical problem... [Archive] - Dodge Talk Community Forum


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Indiana Red
11-05-2004, 10:44 PM
Sometimes when I turn the key to "start" everything goes nearly dead. Dome lights, radio, heater blower everything. Letting off the key back to the "on" pos, everything comes back on but slowly. Like it takes abut 2 sec for everyting to come back up. Even then things are dim and you can tell juice is down about 50-75%.
Eventually it will start. Sometimes after literally 30-40 tries it will just fire right up. Once it started only after holding the key in the start position for about 20 sec..then suddenly VROOM !
Just tonight it fired up after 10 min. of 50 key turns, banging on the steering collum, shifting the gears etc. While holding the key in start , I opened the door and at the instant the door cracked open, it imediately fired up.
These cars have a load reduction relay right? That cuts power to all unecessary electricals for max juice to the starter? Well, its kinda like that but so weird.
History: I have changed the ignition lock cyl about a year ago, unplugging and plugging the related wire connections in that area of course.
It sounds a like a flakey connection somewhere.
Anyone up for this brain teaser?
91 Grand 3.3 240K

KTS
11-05-2004, 11:21 PM
sounds like a ground problem, if you have a voltmeter that can check ohms/resistance, take the negative cable off the battery and check between it and the body in multiple spots, right at battery, engine block, fuse panel. it should read close to 0 ohms. If the ground system is bad even a little you won't get full power from the battery, and the higher the resistance the greater the load, so any ground problem will add resistance and pretty much kill anything.

Indiana Red
11-07-2004, 03:59 PM
Well, I removed the battery and cleaned and wire brushed the terminals as well at the ground mounting point on the side ot the cam cover. Started several times in a row so fdar today.
Chalk another one up to "check the basics" :cool:

KTS
11-07-2004, 04:00 PM
glad to hear the news. it's always the first thing you think about, but you think nah thats too simple. hehe