ahunt67

Hello everyone! I'm new to the forum as I just bought my first mustang a few weeks back. Its a 1967 all original coupe (except for after market stereo) with an inline six 200 no power steering or brakes. The car has been running really well since I bought it, however there is a problem with the latch on the drivers door so I had the car open for a few hours while working on it a few days ago and the dome light was on. The next day after working on it, the car wouldn't start. It would turn over but not start, then make these clicking sounds. I attributed this to a drained battery and jumped it. I drove it around for a while to recharge the battery and it ran fine. Later that day I took it out. Started fine, but about 10 min into the drive, I was mostly idling in a fast food line, my stereo started flickering on and off. Then when I accelerated quickly, the car died. It was completely dead, didn't even turn over at all. I thought it was the battery again but the headlights and emergency lights were still working. I had it jumped again and it ran back home ok. When I tried to start it again the engine doesn't turn over at all, just makes the same clicking sound.
Sorry this is long but just want to be complete as possible. Is this a problem with my alternator or something else electrical? I have really no idea and would love any advice you've got. Thanks.

EZFEED

What is your Alt putting out? Does the gauge show its within normal parameters?

Also whens the last time you cleaned and greased your battery connections? By this I mean THE WHOLE THING.
The ground cable, is it in good shape? No melts or burn throughs? Follow it down to where it bolts to the engine or frame (I've seen them in both locations). Unbolt it and use a wire brush to clean the area it grounds to and clean the end of the cable then apply a little grease to the contact surfaces and bolt threads then replace it. Seal with paint if you feel like it.
Do the same for the positive side, check the short wire from the batt to the solenoid and the wire from the solenoid to the starter. Unbolt them and wire brush the connections, solenoid posts, and starter terminal, then grease them up and replace them.
Check the battery posts, clean them and the + - terminal ends then grease them and tighten them down.
Effects from moisture are 90% the cause of all electrical problems. Grease is your friend here and it will seal them out.

Check the water in the battery while your doing all of this. Make sure the levels are up. You can have your alt tested for free at your local AutoZone so you may want to do that. If your alt is OK then your battery might be crapping out. You might want to take a rubber mallet and whack on the sides (long sides only) of the battery. Not too hard.....definitley not hard enough to rupture it......but some good firm taps. This will loosen up any oxidation on the plates and will restore a supposed dead battery allot of times. Or you can just buy a new one

MIL1ION

Alternators should not be considered as battery chargers.

hopefully no one has removed a battery cable with the engine running,causing the alt to go bad ?


charge that battery with a real battery charger then take it to a parts shop and have them load test it.

ignition requires 5-6 volts min to run.

urban_cowboy

Thoughts:

1. Batteries that are deeply discharged should be brought back slowly so they are not overheated and/or boil out acid. An alternator does not accomplish that. A "smart" charger does.
2. An alternator requires rpms to work. It does not surprise me that it did not charge up with you idling a bunch.
3. Batteries need acid to function. If the acid water is low, a battery will not function correctly.
4. Different devices require different amounts of current. Classic cars do not run on electronics, with a few exceptions. Lights for instance will function, maybe not at full brightness, but will burn until there is no current to light them. Your radio probably has a low voltage kick out that will not let it run below a given voltage/supply current level. It does not surprise me that your radio did not work, but headlights did. The starter requires the most amount of current and it typically the first thing to stop working. The clicking sound you hear is the solenoid not having enough current to operate the starter.

Regardless of the state of your battery charge, the charging system should provide enough current to run the car. Since you car shut off, maybe your charging system is not working correctly.

I would:
1. check your battery fluid level
2. slowly charge your battery with a smart charger
3. start the car and check the charging system voltage (should be 13-14V).

1 and 2 may solve your problem, but doing 3 will tell you for sure if you have a battery issue or a charging system issue. If all is well and you still have problems, you may have a bad battery and you should have it checked to see what current it is capable of.

ahunt67

Thanks everyone. I think I got it figured out. I cleaned the connections and it still didn't work so I jumped it and took it to AutoZone. They tested the battery but couldn't get a reading so they charged it and tested it again. I think it was just completely drained. They said it was fine... now she's running beautifully!! If it dies on me again I know I've got a charging issue. Thanks for all the help!

lefty3382

The exact same thing happened to me yesterday. I had the door open when I was working on my parking brake in the afternoon, then I take her for a drive for about an hour. I stopped at the market down the street from my house and when I tried to start her to go home the battery was almost completely dead. Jumping her with my dad's car didn't help, nor did jumping with the tow truck. She finally started with a double jump using both. The car ran strong while she was running, but as soon as I turned her off the battery was completely dead again. This led me to the conclusion the battery is no longer holding a charge. I'm almost certain the alternators good because its a Powermaster that I installed only 2 months ago.

I took the battery down to Autozone today and told them it wasn't holding a charge anymore. The employee hooks it up and says something like "yeah, its a dud" and gives me a brand new one because its still under warranty. My cables and starter relay have some rust on the connections because the previous battery exploded and shot battery acid everywhere so I bought new cables and solenoid as well. I'll install all the new stuff tomorrow and see what happens.