Unusual electrical issue...

[Tbird232ci]

Well...this is the first car that has had me stumped so many times.

So I'm going to get as specific as I can. This problem has me stumped.

This past thursday was the first time I drove this car for an extended amount of time. I was on the highway, and my headlights started flickering. As they flickered, the car would start to missfire. There wasn't much pattern to the issues. The more it happened, the more observant I became. I noticed that the volt gauge would also drop as this was going on. I dropped the car into 4th gear to ensure that I had the rpm to sustain the voltage.

When I was back in my neighborhood, I started playing with the car a bit. I noticed that if I turned the wheel to the left, the lights would get nice and bright, and have no issues, but if I turned to the right, they would dim, car would missfire, and it would act up.

Also, since I've had to babysit the voltage gauge, I would notice that as soon as I hit the gas, the voltage would drop a volt or so, regardless of RPM. If I let off of the gas at any RPM, I'd pick up voltage and everything would work a bit better.

Today, I pulled the steering column covers off, and found nothing to be wrong. I'm not too familiar with the electrical portion of these cars, so I don't know if they face the same ignition switch failure issues that fords of the same era do. It would seem to make sense that that point. I inspected the connectors on the switch, and nothing seemed wrong, but I don't want to pull the switch off and apart without having a replacement. Also, as far as I know, all of the connections on the alternator and battery are good, clean and tight.

This thing has me stumped. Any ideas?

[turbovanman²]

Maybe check for anything binding on the steering parts or touching?

The only thing that comes to mind is the turn signal switch, thats all that really touch's, I guess is the word, when turning.

Try the horn, turn signals next time and see what happens.

The only other thing I can think of is a short somewhere turning the wheels makes it happen,

Is it a tilt column? if so, is it loose? if loose, it could be moving the ig switch but I've never seen that happen, yet? The switches are a pretty good design and rarely fail.

[Tbird232ci]

I've played with the turn signal switches and whatnot, and there hasn't been any change. I pulled the plastic covers off, and only found 1 wire that was close enough to touch, but it was untouched, and the insulation was in tact.

If I had a better place to cruise around, I'd disconnect the turn signal switch to see if that has any effect.

The horn was one of the first things I tried. The horn doesn't work, so I disconnected the horn and put the button back on. No change there.

It's a non-tilt wheel. Hopefully that all eliminates the switch as being the problem.

I did some searching on another forum, and saw a "possible" issue with the fan relay possibly shorting internally, and since my fan doesn't work as it is, I'll try replacing that since I know for a fact it needs one. I also think I'm missing the ground strap from the firewall to the fuel rail.

[turbovanman²]

Sounds like you have it covered so far. Definately add some more engine grounds.

[OmniLuvr]

grounds are super important in theses things. i just ran grounds everywhere, intake to firewall, intake to fuel rail(important to run right), batt to chassis, batt to engine, engine to chassis, head to block(?).

another thing, once your computer see's boost over 5 psi, it will kick on the fan.

my horizon had the give it gas, loose voltage, thing. but it was the ground on the drivers side fender well, in front of the strut.

now the turning problem, is it while your driving or will it do it while your sitting in a stationary position?

[thefitisgay]

sounds like some wires rubbed trhough somewhere id say save up for a new harness

unless you wanna actually take the old one out and apart and inspect/repair it

when i got my truck the dude put a radio in and ran the one power wire right over my clutch linkage pivot point

[butchsuppe]

grounds are super important in theses things. i just ran grounds everywhere, intake to firewall, intake to fuel rail(important to run right), batt to chassis, batt to engine, engine to chassis, head to block(?).

another thing, once your computer see's boost over 5 psi, it will kick on the fan.

my horizon had the give it gas, loose voltage, thing. but it was the ground on the drivers side fender well, in front of the strut.

now the turning problem, is it while your driving or will it do it while your sitting in a stationary position?

+1 Bad grds or power.

[Tbird232ci]

I don't have any updates on if what I did fixed the issue, but I just finished up a found of promising fixes, so I decided to post while I warm up.

Upon inspecting the car, I found that there was only one engine to body grounds. The one on the passenger side mount was still in tact, but it was really flimsy feeling. I made a new ground to go from the fuel rail, and run that to the firewall, where the ground strap for the passenger mount is mounted. Also on this car, the previous owner put one of those cheap battery terminals on because the old negative terminal broke. I noticed there was a wire eyelet mangled in there, but no wire, then a broken eyelet on the inner fender well by the power module. I ran another ground wire to there.

While I was at it, I put the new fan relay on it too so the cooling fan works.

Since I ran the car out of gas...I have to get gas for it, then I will let you guys know what went on.

If that doesn't work, I'll be checking the multifunction switches next.

[OmniLuvr]

i think that fender well ground will be your problem, at least i hope for you. good luck, i cant wait to see if it helped.

[Turbodave]

Make sure the alternator terminals aren't making contact with the radiator when the engine torqes back. I've seen some wierd issues caused by that situation.

[Tbird232ci]

Well, this thing is a whole different animal now. It runs better, everything works properly, has some power, and is pleasant to drive.

Basically, it only had one ground that was barely cutting it. I guess as the engine was moving, the ground would contact, then work loose, causing my issue. I added two very stout grounds (one was a pair of 10g wires, the other was a single 10g wire) and this took the load off of that poor little guy.

Now the game plan is to replace the original ground, and maybe add one or two others as I see fit.

Dave, that's a very interesting thing to look for, I'll check that out. I've never heard of that.