No cranking, all of a sudden

[doofy]

Just took my 91 740 wagon to the store. Went in. Came back out.
Starter will not work. Nothing happens when I turn the key. A few
gauges jump when I turn the key, but nothing else. The door chime rings
with the door open, so I guess the battery did not die all of a sudden.

Could this be a fuse?

I tried it in park. I tried it in neutral. I jiggled the shifter around.

Any ideas?

 

[Boris Mohar]

Just took my 91 740 wagon to the store. Went in. Came back out.
Starter will not work. Nothing happens when I turn the key. A few
gauges jump when I turn the key, but nothing else. The door chime rings
with the door open, so I guess the battery did not die all of a sudden.

Could this be a fuse?

I tried it in park. I tried it in neutral. I jiggled the shifter around.

Any ideas?

Jiggle the battery terminals. The have to make a GOOD contact.



Regards,

Boris Mohar

Got Knock? - see:
Viatrack Printed Circuit Designs (among other things) http://www.viatrack.ca

void _-void-_ in the obvious place

 

[doofy]

Jiggle the battery terminals. The have to make a GOOD contact.

That's possible. The radio will not come on. The power door locks
work, though sludgy. I plugged a small air compressor into the
cigarette light, and it worked, though sluggish.

I put a tester across the terminals, and it seems to have full voltage.

Why won't the radio come on? That's very low voltage.

 

[Roland Messerschmidt]

Hi,

Just took my 91 740 wagon to the store. Went in. Came back out.
Starter will not work.

My guess: starter died.

Sorry for my English (this vocabulary you certainly don't learn at
School... ;-) ), but in German it's called something like a burnt
rotor lamella.

I tried it in park. I tried it in neutral. I jiggled the shifter
around.
Any ideas?

Well, in this case the automatic is a disadvantage.

With a manual tranny you can give the car a push, jump in, press the
clutch pedal, turn and hold the key to ignition and release the clutch
pedel for a (very) short time. Then the starter will work again, until
he again comes to a stop at the defective area.
btdt, very "funny" to do this exercise on a motor home on the way
home... ;-)


Roland

 

[doofy]

Hi,



My guess: starter died.

Would that cause the radio not to work?

Sorry for my English (this vocabulary you certainly don't learn at
School... ;-) ), but in German it's called something like a burnt rotor
lamella.



Well, in this case the automatic is a disadvantage.

Automatics are always a disadvantage, unless you're smooching and
driving at the same time.

I just went and cleaned the terminals. Nothing.

 

[Gary Heston]

Just took my 91 740 wagon to the store. Went in. Came back out.
Starter will not work. Nothing happens when I turn the key. A few
gauges jump when I turn the key, but nothing else. The door chime rings
with the door open, so I guess the battery did not die all of a sudden.

Could this be a fuse?

Could be. Find the main fuse and reseat it.

I tried it in park. I tried it in neutral. I jiggled the shifter around.

Any ideas?

Could be the battery; they can fail suddenly--could be the alternator
or charging system failing to charge the battery. Or a bad connection.

You need to test the battery under load; check the voltage across the
terminals without a load first--you should see about 12.6V. If you
see significantly less (11.5V or less) either it's not charged or it's
bad.

Now, turn on the headlights and check the voltage--if it's dropped below
11V, you most likely have a bad battery.

If the battery voltage isn't dropping, test for differences between the
positive terminal and the connector on the positive cable, or from the
negative terminal to the chassis. If there's more than 0.5V, you may
have a bad cable.

Try borrowing a battery; or jump starting. Also, most parts places can
test a battery for you (and usually will for free).


Gary

 

[James Sweet]

That's possible. The radio will not come on. The power door locks work,
though sludgy. I plugged a small air compressor into the cigarette light,
and it worked, though sluggish.

I put a tester across the terminals, and it seems to have full voltage.

Why won't the radio come on? That's very low voltage.

I suspect the ignition switch itself is bad, it could also be the battery
cable or even the battery itself. The radio is not any more low voltage than
anything else in the car, it's all 12V nominal. It's a low current load, but
if the voltage is below a certain point it won't power up.

 

[online drifter]

Just took my 91 740 wagon to the store. Went in. Came back out.
Starter will not work. Nothing happens when I turn the key. A few
gauges jump when I turn the key, but nothing else. The door chime rings
with the door open, so I guess the battery did not die all of a sudden.

I had the same type of problem -- bad battery. Under no load it was
11.5, under load of the key turning - 5.6 volts. Changed the battery (
2 days left in replacement warranty) and all better.

 

[doofy]

I had the same type of problem -- bad battery. Under no load it was
11.5, under load of the key turning - 5.6 volts. Changed the battery (
2 days left in replacement warranty) and all better.

Well, thanks everyone for your feedback. Under load, the battery was
about 6-8 volts. Replaced it and it cranked right up. So, unless
there's some other fault that killed the battery, I'm good to go.