No power but battery has power

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MB43

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Not a Mopar, but...

I''ve got a '94 Cavalier. The other day while driving the speedo dropped down to 0, then came back up. The radio went on and off a few times. Then the car died altogether. It won't start, won't spin the motor. The interior light doesn't work, the dashboard doesn't light up. Nothing.

I checked the voltage at the battery with a multimeter, it's got 12 volts. I followed the positive cable down to the starter, checked the voltage there and there doesn''t seem to be any.

Should there be voltage at the stater? It looks like a straight shot from the battery to the starter so I would expect that there should be voltage there. Can the battery cable go bad?
 
Battery cables CAN go bad, usually just before the terminal. Seen them go green with corrosion and break. May want to check the main ground from the battery also.
 
I'm betting your battery terminals have just enough corrosion to act as an insulator. Loosen them up and give them a couple 1/4 turn twists and tighten them back down again.
 
ramcharger said:
I'm betting your battery terminals have just enough corrosion to act as an insulator. Loosen them up and give them a couple 1/4 turn twists and tighten them back down again.
Click to expand...

I haven't pulled the cables off the battery yet, but looking at them there didn't seem to be any corrosion on them. I'll try pulling them off, though.
 
Betcha the first half inch or so of your cable is green dust with a few strands still recognizable in the middle. Seen this a lot on GMs, especially with the side terminals on the battery. For some reason it seems to eat the positive cable first.
 
Those dang side post cables that the GM's use hide corrosion.

Just had a dead battery on my truck and cables looked fine till we pulled them. :toothy10:
 
Yeah, that was it... I pulled both cables off (side mount), the inside - the part that connects to the battery - was completely corroded. A few minutes with a wire brush cleaned them up and the car started right up.

It's been so long since I've had a side-mount battery that I forgot all about that.
 
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