Hi,

Hoping somebody can help me with an electrical problem on my 1988. Here is the situation.

I have recently replaced the starter relay and starter motor. When I insert the key in the ignition I still have 12V to the input terminal of the starter relay. When I turn the ignition key I get a voltage drop at that same terminal to about 6 volts and the relay does not fire. Now if I remove the key it remains at 6 volts until I remove the positive terminal of the battery. Then all is "reset" back to 12v. I am not familiar with the 88 harness, but it seems to me some device in the harness once having the applied (like some coil) is malfunctioning which explains why when I take the key out the system voltage remains depressed until I disconnect the battery.

Anyone have an idea about which other part in the harness to replace? (e.g the "black box" near the drivers firewall?, something in the distributor??) I am clueless at this point and don't want to just replace electrical parts hapharzardly.

Thanks David Kebler

 

David
are you talking about the skinny or fat wire on the starter relay? if it's the fat one, you have a bad battery cable or ground connection.

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97 Lariet-sc-4.6-4x off road-auto-3.55 LS-
superchip-Airraid-Perma-cool electric fan & controller

 

Yes I am checking the hot terminal on the relay... i.e. the one connected directly to the hot terminal of the battery. So you are suggesting the cable from relay to hot terminal of the battery may be bad... thus the voltage drop when a load it applied?

 

daneel
it has to be a bad battery cable or connecton. when the starter relay reads 6v, read the battery terminal directly. if it's still 6v read across both battery terminals to make sure the battery is ok. if the battery is 12v, the ground cable or connection is probably bad. it is often overlooked because it's hard to see & get to.