JeEvE

iTrader: (10)

I'm having an issue with my 97 beater max (base, 5spd, 165k), I'm out of ideas and need the car tomorrow morning so I'm in desperate need of help. I was parking it in my driveway and it either stalled out on its own or I stalled lol. Anyway, right after that it was acting as if the battery is partially dead as in dim dash lights, weak horn, etc. The battery voltage at the battery and alternator checked out fine and I changed the 140 amp battery fusible link and nothing. Thanks in advance.

delacruz_17

iTrader: (1)

same thing happened to me a couple years back. Check the harmonic balance pulley. What to look for you ask? The pulley is supposed to be one solid piece. However it is made up of two pieces, the inner and the outer part. Check to see if the inner part and outer part move together. They should move together, if the inner part slips then the inner part is turning faster than the outer part thus your alternator is not spinning fast enough.

EDIT:

DennisMik

iTrader: (2)

You said the voltage checked out at the battery & alternator. Was the car running or not? What was the voltage? When not running, the voltage should be 12.0 to maybe 12.3. When running, the voltage should be approx 14.5. If your voltage is truly OK, then you may be looking at a grounding problem.

Nopike

iTrader: (2)

Clean your battery terminals. You would be surprised how many people have the kind of problem you describe due to a bad connection at the terminals.

maxgtr2000

iTrader: (29)

One symptom of a bad connection is everything is on when you turn the key but when you go to start everything goes completely dead. I've also had the car go completely dead while driving because of a bad battery connection, it would sputter at idle without throttle too.
when I finally figured it all out I couldn't believe that little problem was causing all that.

Greazemonkey

I've had the same issue. You might wanna check your battery terminals. Mine is due to a horrible corrosion problem. When it dies out like that wiggling the negative cable a bit usually helps lol but clean your terminals. Its just a bad connection.

locknuts27

iTrader: (2)

I would actually start out with the ground wire. If you have an intermittant ground you are going to see power issues. After, check all the terminals....

As a matter of fact, while back I had a Pontiac Fiero and it just cut out while driving back to Nellis AFB from the strip. Luckily I was able to park it and called a friend of mine to diagnose the problem. Turned out that ground wire broke off and had to reattach it. Luckily there was enough wire left to reattach it!