Let me preface this by completely admitting that I was a former spoiled Mustang owner and always had all the work done by others. My father bought me a 72 Grande (V8, 351 Windsor, glass packs) as my first project car.

After the regular maintenance (the previous owner let her sit the entire 7 months he owned her) she was running a little rough but was drivable. Yesterday I went out and her battery was dead. After a jump she was running (though a little rougher) for a few minutes then died off. When I tried to restart I got the lovely *clickclick* followed by nothing. Another attempt at jumping led to the same experience.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

i'm having the exact same problem with a 289 mustang! just curious, should the water level in the battery be filled to the brim?

 

I just went thru all of that and more with my 65 coupe. It turned out that the wiring coming from the alternator to the harness was wired wrong. I also bought a new battery and alternator. She starts right up now. If the car has been sitting, I would start by replacing the battery. Start cheap, end penniless anyway. Gotta love your mustang!!
Good luck, Chelle

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I went thru this same thing several times. First, make sure ALL your wiring connections are tight and free of corrosion. Many times the pos or neg terminal come loose and that will cause clicking. CHeck the wires to make sure they arent touching the block, my starter cable fried because it was leaning on the block. If all connections are good, you then want to check the voltage regulator plug to make sure its clean and making good contact. A faulty regulator wont let the alternator recharge your battery. Go to a parts store and ask them to put a meter on your charging system, if it shows a low output, less than 12.7, try jiggling the voltage regulator plug and see if it jumps up, if it does, you found your problem. Of course, it could be a bad battery too, so you have to go step by step to find the problem. Hope this helps.

 

Start your car and disconnect the positive lead to the battery and if your car dies you need a new alternator, if it doesn't, your battery cannot hold a charge and is making your car cut off, so you will need a new battery

 

I had a similar problem, it have not resolved yet, the first thing i tried to do was to fix the alternator, because im a student and i have not time and money to buy new parts. so with a cheap reparation the alternator was repaired but the problem comes again, the next thing i tried was to rewire the entire car cause it had an old wiring. I have the complete wiring manuals but because i have a "made in mexico" alternator, im actually stuck on how to connect this alternator who have different labels on the connection terminals. In lot of my investigations i have seen that the reason of why the battery dies, its because, in first place, the battery its too old, other reasons could be a bad diode on the alternator, causing a short and draining the battery charge, other reason could be bad circuit on the alternator regulator, in this case is better to replace for a new one. I have also seen people who installs a new alternator from a 96 mustang in to his old mustangs. they say it works, i dunno about that

 

The easiest way to test the charging system is with a digital volt meter. Get the car running, check the voltage at the battery terminals. It should be between 13.5 and 14.5 volts. If it's not, you have a charging problem. Check the wiring from the alternator to the voltage regulator. Have the alternator checked and if it's good, change the regulator. I bought my 69 from a friend who always had dead battery problems. When I bought it I checked the wiring and found that the regulator was wired wrong.

With regard to battery water, it should not be filled to the brim as it will "boil over" when charging. There should be a mark under each cap that's usually about 1 - 1 1/2 inches below the rim.

Hope this helps.

 

I simply replaced the my old alternator and voltage regulator with a one wire 130 amp alternator from Summit. Blip the throttle once to self excite it and away it goes. Now i have lots of power and no dimming lights. I simply removed the old voltage regulator and wiring as the voltage regulator is self contained in the chrome alternator.
Oh yeah $139
Cheers,
Steve-O

 

Thanks for all the advice!

I got a voltmeter, checked everything possible...

$25 and a new starter motor relay later she was racing around the block. Don't I feel silly now

 

Voltmeter...your best electrical troubleshooting friend!!