Casper the Cobra - Procharged 96' Cobra

[Venompower]

if you have a ground that is even the SLIGHTEST bit loose I would start there. IF the power and ground connections are not tight enough that you can move/wiggle them then they are not tight enough. Electronics does some funny stuff when it has almost but not really kind of sorta enough voltage or current and that could be your problem.

I'm going to start with the battery and negative cable. I'm desperately hoping this is the issue... since the battery has full voltage and the engine box has about half, and the interior box has almost none, there seems to be a problem getting power from battery to fuse boxes.

 

[Venompower]

Both wires from the battery to fuse box are split open, wires appeared to be fairly intact… is this likely the issue?

 

[ttocs]

I can't tell for sure that almost looks like a fuseable link that might have popped?

to find out if its good or bad take your multimeter and set it to ohms. Put one end on one side of the wire and the other lead on the other end and see how many ohms it reads. The lower the better.

 

[Venompower]

I can't tell for sure that almost looks like a fuseable link that might have popped?

to find out if its good or bad take your multimeter and set it to ohms. Put one end on one side of the wire and the other lead on the other end and see how many ohms it reads. The lower the better.

I’ll try that, I tightened the negative battery cable and then measured the links in voltage. One had about 12v and the other measured almost none.

 

[ttocs]

you set the meter to voltage and then touched both ends of the wire like I said?

 

[Venompower]

you set the meter to voltage and then touched both ends of the wire like I said?

No… I thought you were supposed to measure a live wires with ohms? I grounded the black lead and measured the exposed wires by the end that connects to the fuse box. One showed 12v the other 0v.

Anybody know the size fusible link used at the battery to fuse box?

 

[ttocs]

my confusion is that if you have your meter set to ohms it will not show voltage it will show resistance(in ohms). Now if you had the meter set to voltage and did the same process I explained and found one that showed 12v, then we might have found our problem.

 

[Venompower]

my confusion is that if you have your meter set to ohms it will not show voltage it will show resistance(in ohms). Now if you had the meter set to voltage and did the same process I explained and found one that showed 12v, then we might have found our problem.

Correct I had not disconnected the battery to check continuity. So with battery connected it was still set to measure voltage so I threw it on and one of the fusible links read 0.0v.

I went to the junkyard yesterday and got three sets of good OEM fusible links and two battery terminal connectors. Hopefully this solves the problem, but if not needed to be done anyways.

 

[ttocs]

ok first in the future to check for continuity you should not leave the meter set to voltage. You can do this but what your looking for when you do it the way you did it is to look for the place that shows up as 12v to show that there was not a short, but an open spot in the circuit. For example if that fusable link is good and you did it the way you did it will show 0v. If the link had blown it will show up as 12v.

If you set the meter to ohms(the ohmega/upside down horse shoe) and do this same thing you would be looking for a wire that would show up as infinite resistance, vs showing nearly 0 resistance for a good wire.

So now we need to find the wire that you measure that showed up as 12v.

 

[Venompower]

ok first in the future to check for continuity you should not leave the meter set to voltage. You can do this but what your looking for when you do it the way you did it is to look for the place that shows up as 12v to show that there was not a short, but an open spot in the circuit. For example if that fusable link is good and you did it the way you did it will show 0v. If the link had blown it will show up as 12v.

If you set the meter to ohms(the ohmega/upside down horse shoe) and do this same thing you would be looking for a wire that would show up as infinite resistance, vs showing nearly 0 resistance for a good wire.

So now we need to find the wire that you measure that showed up as 12v.

I’ll check ohms today with a probe on each side of the carnage. Again my understanding was that you should not check ohms with the battery hooked up and the wires powered. So since I didn’t have time to disconnect everything I ground the black probe and checked each wire to voltage on the side of the link that was I damaged and closest to where they connect to the fuse box. I assumed if blown or almost blown the would get less Than the 12v that should be going to the box.

I’ll report back once I measure ohms.

 

[ttocs]

It is better to disconnect the wires prior to checking them. Can you get a better pic of that wire in question?

 

[Venompower]

It is better to disconnect the wires prior to checking them. Can you get a better pic of that wire in question?

I checked them prior to disconnecting and one had continuity and the other did not.

I want to get some flux paste tomorrow before I begin the repair. I’ll check the old links again tomorrow disconnected.

 

[ttocs]

Your check with it on voltage said the same thing, one good one not good.

 

[Venompower]

Your check with it on voltage said the same thing, one good one not good.

Correct.

 

[Venompower]

Giving up for the night as my soldering iron wouldn’t get hot enough to melt the solder just by touching it to the wires.

 

[ttocs]

Giving up for the night as my soldering iron wouldn’t get hot enough to melt the solder just by touching it to the wires.

are you using an iron, or a solder gun? The solder guns often just need the tip cleaned and tightened up and they are good as new

 

[Venompower]

are you using an iron, or a solder gun? The solder guns often just need the tip cleaned and tightened up and they are good as new

I bought a cheap solder iron from Harbor Freight. Might have to return it for something more powerful.

 

[Venompower]

So here's a picture of what I'm working with...

I'm going to wrap the exposed section of wire at the terminal, and I need to solder in the new fusible links to the middle wire that is cut and sticking up... having a hard time, is there any sort of connector I could use to assist the connection.

 

[ttocs]

what kind of problems are you having, how much experience do you have soldering? If I had to guess the problem is your iron may not be able to get hot enough for the size of the wires your soldering or your not letting the wire get hot enough. You need to hold the iron on the wires and count to around 10 with as thick as they are. Then start to touch the solder to the wires. If it does not melt then hold the iron on the wires(maybe move to a little different location to move the heat) till the wires are hot enough to melt the solder.

But with as thick as those are your going to need a pretty good sized iron.

 

[Venompower]

what kind of problems are you having, how much experience do you have soldering? If I had to guess the problem is your iron may not be able to get hot enough for the size of the wires your soldering or your not letting the wire get hot enough. You need to hold the iron on the wires and count to around 10 with as thick as they are. Then start to touch the solder to the wires. If it does not melt then hold the iron on the wires(maybe move to a little different location to move the heat) till the wires are hot enough to melt the solder.

But with as thick as those are your going to need a pretty good sized iron.

I don't have a ton of experience with this size of wire. I assumed the little harbor freight iron just wasn't up to the task of heating the wire sufficiently. Need to figure something out as this car isn't going anywhere with no links lol.