iamjoey

My 1965 Mustang GT Coupe died today while driving it...acts as though there is no battery...no power to ANY accessory.
Put in a new solenoid, jumped the solenoid and engine cranked. 12.3 volts at battery and positive terminal of solenoid.
Ran a jumper from negative post of the battery to the engine..again, nothing.

Any help/advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

BigIron22

the fuse-able link may have blown. mine blew and i had the same type symptoms. all the lights didn't work, wouldn't crank from the key and so forth. the car was dead. the fuse-able link is where all the power to the car comes off of the solenoid.

2+2GT

Huh? There is no fusable link in the factory wiring.

You say you replaced the solenoid, and the engine cranked. Sounds fixed to me. Then you say you ran a "jumper" to the engine and got nothing. Why? You said it cranked already. Check the integrity of all the battery cables AND the chassis ground cable from the RH cylinder head to the firewall.

stephen.osborne1

Loose terminal...? Corrossion? Always try the most simple things first.

BigIron22

sorry the previous owner must have installed a fuse-able link in my car. I thought it was stock. but when that blew the car was dead.

if you read he jumped the solenoid to crank the car. sounds as if it won't crank from the key. or has any electrical power.

so if the car is completely dead no power aka headlights,dome-light, won't crank from the key. you need to start on the battery side of the solenoid there should be a wire that comes of off of there that either has a bad connection or is broken. this is from my personal experience with my 70 stang barring any previous owners having had changed anything.

iamjoey

Problem solved and thanks for your help...turns out to be a blown fuse that the alarm was wired to. When the fuse blew, it essentially killed the alarm which killed the car electrics.
Not sure why the fuse blew...alarm as been in the vehicle since we got it about 10 years ago...but she's running now!

PatrickL

I have searched all over the net for an issue similar to mine. Let me start by saying how I arrived at this thread. Wednesday night I was going for a little cruise in my recently acquired 70 Fastback. Suddenly, the car went dark and shut off. I coasted over to the side of the road, opened the hood and found the Firewall to battery/selonoid wiring harness laying on the right side header completely melted through/shorted/all but one wire severed. I had the car towed the 1.2 miles back to my house and went to work on a temporary repair on the wiring harness. I removed a 3 inch section of fried wiring and spliced them back together. I checked for continuity of the wires across the repair. I checked all fuses in the fuse panel as well. I reconnected the battery, turned the key and it is just as the original poster has stated(dead pony). Its as though the battery isnt even connected. This afternoon I replaced the selonoid with no improvement. The engine will turn over if I jump the selonoid. Im figuring that something else must have gotten cooked in the process, but am not sure where to start. Is it possible the ignition switch itself got fried? Is there another fuse that I could be missing. I have looked thoroughly at the harness all the way up to the firewall and it appears to be fine. Im hesitant to tear into the dash/steering column in that my electrical experience is not that vast. If anyone has any ideas or could point me in the right direction for troubleshooting, Im all ears. Thanks for the help in advance!!

texas67coupe

PatrickL: Just FYI probably should have started a new thread, but to help you out. When I first bought my car, I had the exact same thing happen to me. I took it out on the road and everything died. Same result, the engine harness from the firewall had completely been burnt through by the exhaust due to it not being attached to the firewall by previous owner. So, I spent the $120 i think on a new harness from the firewall connection to the sylenoid and avoided any other issues with burnt wires. Fired right up and the harness is now attached to the firewall and I know that there will be no more issues. I also had to replace the main ground as that looked like it was burnt clean through as well. Remember that the original stuff is over 30 years old. Just replace the harness in my opinion.

PatrickL

Texas, thanks for taking the time. I read this thread a couple more times and took 70stangguys advice and started with the wire coming off the positive side of the selonoid. It turns out the wire had failed internally(insulation was fine) about 1 inch from the selonoid. I think your logic is good. A new harness is in order.