1988 Festiva L, Manual Transmission, 126K miles, Electrically DEAD

[tomnorman457]

My better half went out this morning to start the Festiva. It started easily, idled rough and ran like crap until it warmed up, which it normally does. Nothing out of the ordinary. She put it into gear and started to drive out the parking lot, when the Festiva died after going about 15 feet. When she tried to re-start it it she got nothing. No click. No starter activity at all. Absolutely nothing.

I checked the battery, which is only a few months old, and it registered 12.8 volts. I checked the continuity of the ground side of the battery and confirmed that it was good. I removed and checked the fuses in the interior and they were all OK. The car is electrically DEAD. No lights. No radio. No horn. No wipers. Nothing.

Any ideas on what to check? Thanks, Tom

[marinepolice03]

check the fuseable links under the hood. they are on the right side of the engine bay.

[wybnrml]

Check the fusible links. There are located on the driver side strut tower. It should have three wires in the fuse block. Especially check the middle one. Pull it out, check for corrosion etc. Wiggle it around and see if the car starts.

[marinepolice03]

lemme go take a pic and upload it for you give me 5 mins,

[marinepolice03]

its the 3 wires grouped toghter

hope this helps.

[batstiva]

Yep, and if the middle one goes, everything goes. I'd also check/ double check that your cables are securely connected to the battery. I know, but humor me and check anyway. Don't ask me why I am recommending this, because I won't tell.

[tomnorman457]

Thanks all for the suggestions and the picture of the fusible links. I removed and checked the three fusible links for continuity and they were all OK. There was some crud on the connectors so I gave them a good cleaning. I also checked and verified that I had 12 volts on one side of the fusible link connectors. Still nothing.

I ran out of daylight before I could check the battery cable connections, but they did not feel loose. I'll check and clean them tomorrow. Using a VOM, I did verify that I had continuity between the negative battery post and the engine block ground. But I'm still not getting power anywhere past the fusible links...

[FestYboy]

main relay frozen...? (located behind driver headlight on inside of fender)

[tomnorman457]

Thank you all for the suggestions; batstiva hit it right on the money. I traced the electrical problem to an open connection of the secondary wire on the positive battery terminal. The wire had corroded to the point of just hanging by a thread. I cleaned the connection and crimped on a new connector. After doing so, the Festy started right up. I love it when a plan comes together...

[marinepolice03]

Glad to see its running again for you.

[batstiva]

Cool! Back up and running! Thanks for the update.

[Safety Guy]

I love happy endings!!

Karl