jeffball610 Posted October 15, 2023 Report Share Posted October 15, 2023 After completing some work on the car, I took it out for a drive. Everything seemed to go fine until I backed into the garage. I saw some smoke from under the hood, but that is typical as the car continues to burn things off. I shut the car off and popped the hood. I noticed the positive battery terminal had touched the chassis, but there was no smoke, sparks, or even witness marks from it touching. I didn't think much of it until I went to start the car again to adjust its placement in the garage. Not only did the car not start or turn over, but all power was gone. I've checked the usual places like the fusable links (I hate those things) and there seems to be voltage and continuity there. I haven't checked under the dash or column yet, but all of the fuses in the fuse panel are good and working. I even replaced a few that were missing. I've looked at the service manual for areas of concern, but I'm not finding anything. I can't seem to find any place that would lead to a complete blackout of power with the key on. I do have power to the door lights and the dash only has a light for door adjar. No other lights, sounds, or indications with the key in any position. Also, the headlights are stuck in the up position. Is there a "typical" location that would cause this? The battery is good and several locations have 12v. I feel like I'm missing something obvious, but so far all of my checks have turned up negative. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psu_Crash Posted October 16, 2023 Report Share Posted October 16, 2023 (edited) Maybe it fried the ignitor box? That wouldn't make sense for everything to cook though. Since you grounded it to the body the return path wiring on the negative side could have been damaged too. You will measure 12V, but you may not be referencing the same ground potential as the battery. Can you hear the main relay pull in when you turn on the ignition? Electrical schematics are available at starquestgarage.com I would focus on ground points if you are already seeing 12Vin places. Edited October 16, 2023 by psu_Crash 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexasQuest Posted October 22, 2023 Report Share Posted October 22, 2023 Have you checked the black fuse link that goes directly to the positive battery terminal? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffball610 Posted October 23, 2023 Author Report Share Posted October 23, 2023 I'm running out of places to look. All of the fusable links next to the battery test fine. The wiring to the ignition switch seems fine, but I don't seem to get a signal out. I have traced the power wire to the ignition switch, but nothing seems to "flow" out. The service manual doesn't always make sense and some of the wire colors are different. Does anyone have any ideas? I'm assuming it has something to do with the ignition switch or something in that circuit. Headlights work, but the motors do not. The door lights are on as well as the door ajar light, but nothing else lights up in the dash. I haven't checked the MPI relay (I think we have one), but that has been an issue on DSMs in the past. It kind of controls everything. Many of the wire connector locations don't make sense in the manual and are not labled well. I'm lost. I shouldn't be, as I've wired an entire 4G63 swap with speed density and rewired an entire chassis. I'm not sure why this seems so foreign at the moment. 😕 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexasQuest Posted October 23, 2023 Report Share Posted October 23, 2023 I would suggest checking all your grounding points. These cars do really weird things with bad/dirty grounds. 88_conquest_service_manual_-_group_26_-_electrical.pdf (starquestgarage.com) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffball610 Posted February 3 Author Report Share Posted February 3 I haven't worked on the car much due to weather and my other car taking up garage space. It is nice out today, so I thought I'd explore this more. I still have no clue what is wrong. As far as I can tell, the ignition switch should have constant 12v power from the WB wire. It does in fact have 12v, that is until you turn the key. I would think it should alyways have 12v and simply distribute it to the correct terminal to route power to the proper accessory. Am I wrong about this? I tried to simply put 12v to the starter solenoid, and I could hear the gear pop out, but only once. I do have 12v at the starter, but perhaps the starter is bad? That doesn't explain why nothing else is working, but it's a place to start. I seriously need some help with this. None of this makes sense. I've wired an entire car from scratch and I'm still confused on this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tux Posted February 4 Report Share Posted February 4 Could be solenoid? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffball610 Posted February 4 Author Report Share Posted February 4 15 hours ago, tux said: Could be solenoid? I checked the solenoid near the battery and swapped it with another in the panel. Nothing changed. I can try it again, but I don't think that's the issue. Going back to how this first came about, I went for a quick drive and I was backing into the garage. I shut the car off and decided I needed to back in more. The car didn't start and all power went out. I popped the hood and saw my battery shifted and the positive terminal was touching the chassis. No fuses were blown. There was no smoke. Everything seemed fine. Just no power. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffball610 Posted February 15 Author Report Share Posted February 15 This is still an unsolved issue. I pulled the starter just to make sure it works, and it's fine. Even though I'm not seeing voltage come out of the switch like I expected, I can still turn the key to get ACC power to the windows. There has to be something small I'm missing. I know in the DSM world, the MPI relay does a lot of things and without it (or if you try to modify around it) things just don't work. Is there a similar thing in Starquests? If you were to turn your key and no electrics turned on, what would be your troubleshotting process? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexasQuest Posted February 17 Report Share Posted February 17 These cars have what's called an ECI relay. It's mounted above the ecu behind the passenger side kick panel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.