Not a Mopar But Ford Electrical Question

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SDHomesteade

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Greetings,

I know this is an A Body forum but I really don't feel like Joining a Ford Board for one question.

I have a 1970's era Versatile Swather that has the Ford 200 6 Cylinder in it and went out to try and get it started today and had a good 12.45 Volt Battery ready to go, Got it hooked up positive to postive, negative to negative ground, Once hooked up, the voltmeter reads 0 Volts and the darn thing won't do anything. Once I disconnect the cables, Slowly the voltage goes back up to 12 volts, until I hook it up again. then back down to 0 Volts and nothing. Damn thing worked just fine when I parked it last year and now it's doing this. Cables are all clean, has new clamps on the battery terminals and still nothing.

HELPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
 
junk battery. 12 volts is one thing, stored amps is another.
 
What is this voltmeter to which you refer?

Either the battery is dead, the cables are not making connection, at the clamps, or some similar issue.

It is likely to be right in the main high power system, IE battery cables, battery, solenoid, etc

Are there accessories you can turn on to test? Lights?
 
No lights or accessories other than the electrical Fuel Pump I installed (with an on off switch attached to it). The Battery works fine in my truck, but once i get the negative cable on (positive hooked up first) the voltage drops to zero volts on my multimeter set to DC Voltage with my electrodes hooked up the terminals themselves, not the clamps. Once I disconnect that negative terminal, the voltage on the battery slowly returns to 12.xx Volts.
 
The pump is connected via separate wires, it runs just fine until the Main Cables are hooked up, and then stops working as the battery is drawn down to zero volts almost instantly.
 
If there is no "gigantic arc" when you hook up the cables, which would indicate a very large current draw, then that battery has gone bad

I had one do this. Worked fine one day. Suddenly, would not even light the dome. Hydrometer showed cells were fine. It had broken an internal connector somewhere
 
Ok, just got back in, Pulled the battery back off the swather and back into the truck, Truck started just fine. It's not the battery.
 
I give up, all the terminals are spotless, shiny metal, and nothing, not even half a crank. Once the battery is hooked up to both cables boom, down it goes to Zero Volts. Take the cables off, Slowly it goes back up to 12.xx volts on the Multimeter. This has me confused as all hell.
 
Not an electrical wiz by any stretch of the imagination, but you could have a short somewhere. Starter solenoid on the wheel well maybe?
 
If it was a short that bad it would be smokin' the cables, heating them up, and producing a HUGE arc when hooked up

I say you have a cable that is internally corroded.

Hook up the battery

Check the TERMINAL voltage of the battery. By that I mean stab your probes directly into the battery POSTS

Now move down the line one step at a time

EG:

Leave on probe stabbed into the NEG post

Move the hot probe from the POS post to the battery clamp. Voltage?

Move to the stud on the starter relay. Voltage?

If that checks out, test the ground side

Stab one probe into the POS post and leave it there.

Move the other probe to the NEG battery clamp. Voltage?

Move to the ground point of the cable, the frame engine block, wherever it connects. Voltage?

I'm betting you lose it somewhere right there
 
Thanks, I will try that tomorrow. I do know that last year when I was having issues with this damn thing, it would keep melting negative terminals on the batteries whenever I would try to start the damn thing. Never did figure that one out, one day it just started working right and ran and drove it several time last year to cut hay and boom, this year it pulls this crap. I can't afford 50k for a new swather and keeping all this 40 yr old equipment running is getting to be a pita.

The Terminal Voltage does read 12.xx volts, until hooked up to the cabled on the Swather, then it dies to 0 Volts. Will check it again tomorrow.
 
Short circuit could be in the alternator, headlight circuit, anything with large wires and 12 volts w/ switch off. I think you'll find some fusible links for various circuits attached at the starter relay with ring terminals. Check them one by one.
 
I am just going to rewire the whole swather, there are only 5 or 6 wires with a length of no more than 6 Feet each on this thing. Thanks for everyone's help. Also there are no headlights or anything of that sort, just an electrical system to start the engine, and recharge the batter, this is not a car, it's a swather, the big 16 Foot "Lawnmowers" used to cut hay LOL. No fusible Links, no headlights, no radio, no nuttin (although it really needs a radio when your cutting hay for 6 hours a day LOL)
 
There's only so much that can cause that kind of "meltage" if that's what it is.........."a short."

The thing is, once you get "away" from the main ground, the main battery to solenoid, and the solenoid to starter, ANYTHING ELSE would smoke the wiring, not the battery

Maybe you have a weird short in the solenoid

This should be easy to find. Start by paying attention to "if the battery sparks" (a lot) when you hook it up. ANY thing which can melt a battery terminal is going to cause a LOT of sparks and a LOT of heat.

This problem should be "in the immediate area" Main cable shorting to ground, bad solenoid, a terminal at the solenoid touching ground, or maybe the starter is toast and the solenoid is also cooked.

There isn't much there
 
No there isn't much there. Starter is Brand New. When hooking up the Negative Cable there was sparks, nothing big like when you hook up jumper cables but definitely sparking. All the wires are Removed right now. I took pictures of everything and wrote down a diagram of how all the wires are all hooked up and just gonna rewire everything, hell the wiring is almost 50 yrs old in this thing LOL. Thanks for all the input fellows, can't wait till haying season is over and I can start working on my Barracuda and Dart again.
 
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