volts down. Temp, oil guage pegged

beemrmem3

Founding Member
Jan 8, 2002
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Washington
Like in the subject. The volts are way down on the guage and the temp and oil pressure guage go really high. So im assuming there is an eletrical problem. Sometimes the motor will even cut out, like theres no spark. When i go over bumps sometimes the volts will go back to normal for a second then back down when i hit another. Im assuming somethings loose. I just visually inspected the ground that does to the block on that bracket. Does anyone have any ideas, or places to check? Thanks
 
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Yep, I would go over all the primary power cables. Battery positive cable and ground, alternator cable at both ends (alt and power distribution block), motor grounds, etc etc. You might find a loose connection which heats up and starts causing issues.

Good luck.
 
I visually inspected some the wires today just really quick, didn't appear to be loose at all. But Ill dive in deeper when i have more time.

Oh ya, it also cranks slower sometimes too. Like there isnt enough power to the altenator. I used some jumper cables and connected one side to the ground on the battery and the other to the engine hoist hook to try to ground it better. It didnt make a difference volts were still way down, and cranked slowly. So does that mean its not a ground thats bad?
 
also you need to check the other engine grounds...not just the batt. to block.

there are

engine to block

block to chassis

and batt. to chassis.

Over the years I have seen the block to chassis be a somewhat common issue so I would maybe start there. For a quick test run some wire from a valve cover bolt to say one of the bolts on the strut tower brace and take a drive.

I had the same issue and the block to chassis was the issue, it got to the point it would not start.
 
I just fixed mine yesterday. It seemed like the battery kept going dead and the car would only start sometimes. We took the battery into Oreillys to get checked and it worked fine so we knew it wasnt that. Dad accidentally laid his hand on the battery to frame ground. it burned his hand cause it was so hot. Took it off sanded it all a little bit and bam. She runs great. Before we figured that out tho, i drove around all wednesday and it was fine. I stopped at my house to snag a towel to go hot tubbing at my sisters house and i came back out and my car was dead like the battery was dead. But we figured out so...its all good. MY stupid radio was always cutting out and the lights would flicker. id checks the grounds
 
ITs weird cause my radio won't even cut out when the whole car does for a breef second. I wonder if that means anything? A couple of days ago i cleaned off the chassis to block ground and didnt seem to do anything. I was just under the car a half hour ago and checked the starter connections. Seems ok. The black female ground wire seemed a tad bit loose, so i pushed it in harder. Haven't started it yet, just got cleaned off. I doubt its even it though. F, I dont want to take it somewhere and have them say it took them 10 hours to find it and charge me like 700 bucks.
 
When my gauges blew it was making my entire car co crazy. My radar detector was going insane, CD player cutting off, lights flickering. Pull out the cluster and see if something came loose. Its easy as hell to get out. A total of 6 screws and the headlight knob.
 
the prob. with the block to chassis ground is the wire itself, it gets all kinds of heatsoak under the exh. and block. The best way to 100% elim. that is to get or make a new wire.

I am not saying that it was the wire, just that the whole thing gets shot not just the connection point. Its kinda like doing a tune up with just plugs and di-elec. grease. Its better than before but the plug wires, cap and rotor are also needing attention.
 
Yeah, take all of your engine grounds and clean/scrape the connections extremely well down to bare metal. Also do the same for your positive terminal on the battery.

Another thing to check is see how many volts the battery has with the car shut off, and with it running. Report those back.

Also, remove and clean/scrape the main cable at the alternator and it's termination point.
Scott