Nothing happens when I turn the key.

Follow the KISS method. First thing to check is your battery terminals, First check resistance between ground and the positive connection with the terminals disconnected. Clean and even replace the clamps and the wires leading to the batt. Then check all connections to the starter and alternator and check resistance on all wires. Another thing to check is have a buddy come over and turn the key and see what voltage you are getting at the batt with the key in the crank position. Alot of batteries will show 12.5 volts when nothing is turned on but as soon as you go to crank the volts will drop to zero. I recently with my 81 had the battery showing 13.5 when the ignition was off but the second my friend went to crank it dropped to 1.5 volts and very low amps. It does sound like a short but anything is possible. Always check the simple shit first.

im not too keen on Vdubs but ive done a fair share of electrical work on alot of vehicles , it sounds like a grounding issue, i agree with westfalieguy check your batt connections and the cables going to and from your starter and battery ground... and also as he said check voltage with the ignition in the different positions. if you dont have a multi meter hit your local computer store or auto parts store. you can get a decent but still inexpesive voltage / Ohm meter for around 20bucks

Thanks to both of you for confirming my suspicions. I'll have to try to get under the van before the snow flies...

You are measuring across the battery (physically across the terminals), then?

It could be a dead short, but that would have to be a fairly serious one to bring the battery to its knees like that. You'd most likely smell something burning or see at least a couple hundred millivolt across the battery (there's resistance in the wires, after all).

It might be that the battery has too high of an internal resistance and can't deliver any kind of current. With a multimeter (which has several hundred KOhm impedance) it only needs to deliver a couple of micro Amps, just enough to measure. With something like a light or starter it will have a problem. Get an old headlight or radio and hook it across the battery without any other load on it. If it drops voltage significantly and/or the light does not light, your battery cannot deal with the load.

Sometimes these problems are intermittent: you could hit the top of the battery terminal with a hammer (not too hard, just tap it) so see if the condition changes. The battery would still need to be replaced if that is the case, though.

Remco

If by shorting out the terminals on the solenoid gets it going. You need the extra solenoid to fire the one on the starter. I use a Ford firewall solenoid on all our VW's. it always works. good luck. g

Did you measure the voltage between the battery POSTS themselves or between the terminal clamps? Do it directly to the posts; you may have a bad connection to the post which is fooling you.

If the battery voltage, measured between the posts themselves, drops way down when you just turn the key on, then it's most likely that your battery just died. Yes, it happens.

You could try charging it, but if it's really dead, it probably won't take any significant charging current.

----------------------------------------------- Jim Adney snipped-for-privacy@vwtype3.org Madison, WI 53711 USA

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