[vettebrett]

My sons car is a 89 notchback 2.3 ltr, car was fine and now it has no power at all, battery is showing full charge, replace starter about 3 weeks ago. We have no electrical power now at all past the battery. Fusible links or what, I have not owned a 5.0 in 7 yrs so I have forgot alot of stuff about these cars. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[91dawg]

I had 74 thru 80's, had that problem a couple times... Ballast resistor. Don't know if an 89 has one tho... anyone???

[StangGT1995]

There's two fusible links coming off the alternator power cable, but that's not your problem because you'd still have power to the rest of the car. Is the polarity reversed on the battery? Clean connections? Grounds are good?

[vettebrett]

I checked the grounds and they seem to be secure, went out last night and the dome light was on, tried to start he car and as soon as the key went to on position, light went out again. This thing is driving me crazy. Any ideas with the symptoms??

[StangGT1995]

Sounds like a bad connection, or cable somewhere. It doesn't have the ability to support the heavier draw once the key goes on. Bad battery terminal on the cable, perhaps?

[vettebrett]

We just bought the car about 1 1/2 months ago, he killed a different car,the car has new cables on the battery. I have never seen a car do this before, I mean we have no juice at all, no headlights, no radio, turn signals, nothing. Just not sure where I need to look for the loose wire at?? Battery shows 12.8 volts so it is good.

[StangGT1995]

It might show 12.8 volts, but have no amps. What happens if you hook up another battery in parallel, such as though you were going to jumpstart the car?

[vettebrett]

Car will still not start and has no power to any accessories such as lights.

[vettebrett]

Well it seems it is the positive cable I believe, when you check the voltage at the cable after reconnecting it, it shows what the battery shows. Then if you try and start the car, nothing and recheck voltage at the positive cable it reads 00.0, if I take it off and reconnect it, it will show voltage again. I have never seen this but will replace postive cable and see what happens.

[Dr_EluSivE]

My car did the same thing, Wouldn't even jump. Replaced the (+) cable, And it fired right up.

Dr.

[Flyin2.3]

Clean all your grounds. My '90LX (195k mi.) did this earlier this summer. No electrical anywhere, very dim if any lights on the dash when you turn the key on, no lights, even the seat belt/key in ignition bell was very quiet. Replaced the starter, fixed for ~2 weeks and it did it again. had starter tested - good, replaced battery cables, again ~2 weeks. Finally got sick of the ~2week thing. I removed every ground cable I could find, battery->block, batt->body, braided strap->firewall, I know there's more but I can't remember where. Cleaned where they bolt on with a dremel & wire wheel (sand paper will work) & put them back on. Took about an hour, even checked them all with my multi-meter, Haven't had this problem sence. Car actually runs better too, doesn't try to stall when cold, idles smoother...

[Rcdriver45]

kewl ill try that ive got the same problem and the positive cable looks new. Thanks