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Would Bad Alternator Cause these Symptoms ?

My car died while driving. Had to have it towed back to my place. It's an 88 GTA with the 5.7 engine.

Here are the symptoms :

Turning key to "on" results in absolutely nothing : No guages, no fuel pump sound.

Turning key to "start" results in absolutley nothing. No crank.

Only things that work are :

Dome light. Parking lights. Horn. Electric side mirror adjuster. When I turn on the parking lights, the dash lights come on. I can move the gear selector around when the key is in "on" position".

Things that don't work are :

No brake lights. No headlights. No turn signals. No radio. No power windows. No power locks. (Makes click sound only)

I checked all fuses in fuse box. All are OK.

I posted before about this, and everyone said fusible link, but I checked all (?) the fusible links and they look great. 2 on the battery cable, and 3 right near the starter.

Could something be fried inside the alt which would cause all these other electrical parts to not work, even when the engine isn't on ?

Thanks

Reply to
Lecher9000
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Are you talking about the dash lights coming on with the parking lights? That's how they normally work, I think.

I visually checked them, and felt them. The 2 links on the battery cable are different from the links at the starter, btw. The links at the battery can be taken apart, and reassembled.

I used a voltmeter to check the battery, which was approx 12 volts. Also checked the end of the pos battery cable, the end that attaches to the alt. Getting about 12 volts there too.

To check for power at the starter, can I just touch the ring connector with the pos lead, and ground the neg lead of the voltmeter? Or do I need to disconnect the wires and test them individually ?

Thanks

The headlights do come on, but they don't pop up. I can see them light up.

Reply to
Lecher9000

I had a similar problem with a Chevy suburban once. Turned out to be the starter solenoid. Drove me nuts until I tried to "jump" the starter with a screwdriver and got nothing. Not sure how your vehicle is wired but it might be worth checking. Could also be a bad ground from the engine to the chassis.

Good Luck! TIGER~

Lecher9000 wrote:

Reply to
TIGER

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