Craddock

I was working on the Trans Am a few minutes ago. Was replacing the turn signal socket on the driver side. I did a half *** job before to make sure it was right and was going back over it doing everything right. Fixed the "A" and "B" wires, tested it after each, everything worked fine. Went to do a good splice on the "G" wire, put it together, turned on the ignition to test the turn signal and had nothing.

Got in the car and tried again. Turn the key to accessory and the radio would turn on, turn it a little more and nothing works at all. Security light came on, but turned off when the key was set all the way forward. The driver side window is down right now btw and the car is outside. Thought maybe the battery was low, tried to jump it from my truck, didn't help. Tried again a few times and now all it will do is sound like a machine gun firing with the ignition. Power kicks on enough to turn on the seatbelt light and nothing else. It sounds like a machine gun when it does try to do anything power (which is only the light for the seatbelt). Headlights are trying to go down even though they are down right now too. Hearing click click click until I pull the fuse for the headlights, then they stop.

Any ideas?

Craddock

Tried again, can turn the key back to accessory and it will reset the radio to 1:00 (factory radio). Car beeps cause the key is in the ignition. Try to roll up the driver side window (it's down) and it kicks off the power to everything. Frustrated as it gets right now.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

This is an indication that the car is not getting power from the battery. If you were jumpping it correctly, maybe you have a loose battery cable?

Craddock

Went out and tightened the cables this morning. Same result.

I'm thinking it has to be something in the ignition switch. If you put the key into the ignition with the door open, it beeps. Turn the key forward first click, still beeps but no accessories. When you do this the passenger side headlight starts clicking trying to go down (it's already down). This continues until you pull the fuse for it out. Turn the key forward to the next click and the car completely dies. Nothing works at all.

If you turn the key backward from the release position to the accessory position and hold it in tight to the column, the radio will come on, but not the speakers. The car will continue beeping because the key is in it with the door open, but will kill everything if you either press the brake pedal or try to use the power windows. As soon as you release the button or pedal, radio lights back up.

Any ideas?

chrysler kid

iTrader: (14)

You have a bad ground somewhere. I would undo whatever wiring you just did then check all of your fuses.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

Got to get out a voltmeter. Have you checked what you can measure at the battery vs. what your gauge cluster says for voltage?

Craddock

First thing I did was cut the last connection I made when it all went to crap. Like I said before, I had the wires from the splice temporary taped together. I reconnected "A" and "B" from the picture below (just on the other side of the car). Tested it again after each resplice. Everything was good. Reconnected "G" from the picture below and everything went bad. I immediately cut the spice I made, but it's still bad.



Looked at all the fuses in the car. IP dimmer is missing, courtesy is missing, tail lamps was burnt out. Going to stop and buy some fuses tonight to replace the missing/burnt fuses.

Craddock

Voltmeter reads 11.1-11.2 with the car sitting still, when you turn the key enough to get the volt gauge to move, but not kick off the car, it barely moves at all, definitely not reading 11 volts.

It's been a long time since I had a car/worked on cars. It was probably 6 or 7 years ago that I had my 94 Z28, since then I've had trucks and have pretty much forgot a lot about working on f-bodies.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

Definitely sounds like a loose ground or other wire somewhere. I'd start by checking the ground mounting points and also the opposite ends of the wires that connect to the battery.

Craddock

Unhooked, cleaned, sanded, and reconnected all grounds that I found. Checked opposite ends of the battery cables. All connections are tight. Even checked the auxiliary battery connection and it has the same voltage as the battery.

Could I have blown a relay or something worked loose in the ignition? I know you're supposed to unhook the battery when doing anything electrical, but it has never been an issue before, so I didn't this time. Could I have blown something because of that?

Craddock

Crawled under the car again this morning, hoping to find something I've missed. Checked the connection to all of the grounds again. Even checked the voltage at the ends of the battery cables. Voltage is making it to the ends.



When you connect the battery cable, even without the key in the ignition, the security light in the above picture kicks on and off like crazy. You can hear it clicking as it's coming on and off. Same thing with the passenger side headlight motor. If you turn the key past the first position, they will quit, but everything loses power that way. Is there anything I can check in the ignition? It seems like that is the problem.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

If your voltage gauge is not reading the same voltage as you can measure at your battery, it sounds like there is a disruption to the power delivery to the car's electronics. All that clicking are relays going crazy because they are underpowered. (If your battery is dead or dying, you'll get a similar effect.)

Just working on the socket pigtail shouldn't screw up anything. Did you unhook the battery while you were doing the work?

Craddock

No . I know I should have, but I've done piddly work before with no bad results and was expecting the same thing this time. I was just cutting out the old socket and putting in a new one.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

Disconnecting the battery could have caused something. I don't think your pigtail job is causing this.

If your battery is fully charged (have you confirmed that with a multimeter on the battery?) then the fact that the problem happens when you connect the battery makes an ignition problem unlikely and points to some sort of power distribution problem.

Craddock

Was getting 11.5 volts on the battery. Put a booster on it and the car tried to start up. Took the battery down to Advance and had it tested, it was bad so I bought a new one and it started right up. The car was started and ran fine 20 minutes before all of this happened. The lights were off, idk how it drained so quickly to cause all of this, but the new battery fixed the non starting problem.

chrysler kid

iTrader: (14)

Sounds like your alternator is bad. Take it off and have advance test it and the new battery

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

So, is everything OK now? If not, what are the remaining issues?