I have a 1965 mustang equipped with an alternator. When I try to crank it the entire electrical system goes dead. The starter solenoid doesn"t click when this happens. I disconnect and re-connect the battery and power is back on until I try to start & same thing happens. I have checked the starter itself and it is good. Battery is good. I have been told I have a blown fuse link. However, I cannot locate a fuse link on this harness coming off the starter relay. I have an old service manual for this series of cars and there is no mention of fuse links.

Question: Does this vintage vehicle have such a fuse link and if so, where is it? If not, what could be the potential causes of this problem. Any help appreciated!

 

Did they even make a 1995 that came without an alternator?

See if this helps:

 

when did it last work right?
what changed since it last worked right?
How often do you drive it?

 

It sits up a lot and I went to crank it up Tuesday last week- it flooded out on me and the battery got weak as I tried to start it. So I took the battery out and put it on charge overnight. Next day when I re-installed battery the problem occurred. Prior to this episode I have never had this problem. I tried another battery with same result. Took starter out and it worked fine but I went ahead and replaced it since the end bushing was spinning. Wanted to check out this thing about fuse links (i.e. fusible wire) before I go to the trouble of replacing ignition switch and/or starter solenoid. Replacing a wire would be much easier if I knew what to replace. From what I can tell the wires connected to the battery side of the solenoid appear to be hot and I don't see anything that looks like it's heavy enough to be fusible except the hot wire to the alternator, and it's hot at the connection on the back.

 

There are no fuses on the primary heavy wires that are responsible for providing power to the starter

it could be the relay sometimes a weak battery can cause them to fail but I dont know if that would explain the loss of power to everything...If that relay stuck closed im not sure if that would cause a loss of power to all systems or if that is controlled by the key position...I think it maybe the ignition sw that cuts power to accessories during start.

 

thanks for input--i'll be into it deeper next week--will post any success

 

When you replaced the battery did you happen to disconnect the small wires on the side of the solenoid? Or the large connections? Having the connections wrong will cause problems. There is no fusible link in this electrical system. There is a pink wire from the ignition switch to the coil which is a resistor wire to drop the voltage to the coil when running. The brown wire on the starter relay jumps this pink wire so the coil gets a full 12 volts during starting.

 

I don't believe I did, but ??.

The brown wire is connected to the pole nearest the starter wire, the red on the battery side.For what it's worth, with the ignition on, but not far enough to crank, the brown wire is hot at the solenoid, but the red wire is not;

on the ACC ignition setting, both of these wires are dead

about 6 months ago I had to replace the coil, but it had been cranking fine until last Tuesday; at that same time I replaced the connector attaching the hot wire to the alternator as it was about to fall of the wire.

if any of this tells you anything, please advise & thanks much for your input

 

First thing I'd do is remove and clean the battery cables...both ends, at the battery and the block.

 

done that already with same result---when i get time am going to put in new ignition switch and solenoid although the latter appears to be working fine