Is it the battery? I hope so

[timmycharger]

Hey guys, strange issue that had me calling the tow truck and then telling them forget it. Sorry for the long post.

This has happened only a few times since last year but then was happening more frequently until it came to a head.

What is happening is the car drives normally, starts w/o any issues etc and then I'll be just driving and the car will shut off without warning. What is strange is that when it does this, there is no power to the starter, fuel pump or radio/amp, A/C. Turn the key and nothing happens but the interior lights still work (dome and console and trunk). 

What I thought was the problem (see pic below) was the power block I have coming off of my shutoff switch on the tail panel.  It holds a mega fuse that I use to protect the car from the battery causing a fire as the large positive cable runs through the car up to the starter so if there was an issue, the fuse would blow first.  When  I installed it, I used a crappy star washer that got rusty. I figured that it wasnt making good contacts anymore so I cleaned it all up perfectly and coated with conductive grease.

I then thought that maybe the shutoff switch was the culprit so I bought another one and installed it to rule that out, made sure connections good and used the conductive grease as well. 

At the same time this issue was going on, I was getting weird ammeter needle activity, jumping around all over the place and my interior lights sort of pulsating when the car is running. Per the meter, I was getting about 14 volts but it was not steady.  Figured it was a voltage regulator so picked up one from Rock Auto and made sure I had an excellent ground (star washer and ground all paint off).  The pulsating was better but now I am seeing 15.2 to 15.9 volts but it was more steady. 

Thought maybe the battery was low and it was just charging it so went for a drive with the wife.  We drove pretty far until the car just dies like I described. I'm jiggling wires, looking at different things and then just randomly it fires up again after about 20 minutes.  I called the tow truck but then called them off once I got it started.  It died 1 more time on the way home, doing the same thing. Randomly coming back to life.
I should also mention that it died almost immediately after putting the A/C on.

When I restored the car, I did the bulkhead bypass upgrade, none of the wires around there were hot or not wired correctly including the fusible link, that was fine.

I was so frustrated that I removed the alternator, checked all the connections around there, unraveled the tape on the harness, checking every connection there including the fields to the alternator and to the MSD as I bypassed the ballast resister as well. All good there.

I then started to think about what happened and how I was not getting any power to the starter,  electric fuel pump or the amp when this happens and staring at at my battery I noticed that the wire that powers the electric fuel pump relay is only about 3 feet long (see pic/arrows and ignore the wiring mess, that was me ripping everything out) and it goes right to a fuse block that then goes to the pump relay. I checked that fuse block and it was intact and seemed fine.

I then did some research and found some guy on a Buick forum who had the same symptoms where car was dead except for interior lights and his issue was the battery. He also was using a red top Optima battery.

I figured ok, battery is now 10 years old and I never used one of those battery tenders for it like they recommend so maybe it just crapped out. I picked up a new battery, standard Diehard 800CCA and dropped it in. 

Car fires up and now its not charging at all. WTF so I pull off the new voltage regulator and put back the one I had before this mess and now I am getting 13.2 to 13.5 at idle and no more bouncing ammeter needle or lights pulsating.


I then took it for a drive, a long drive with the A/C on full blast, radio and headlights. Alt was charging fine with everything on (I have a plug in meter as well for driving) and there were no issues so far.


Could the old Optima battery cause all these issues? Can it kill a voltage regulator? So strange.

[will]

   How much dielectric grease did you use? You should only put on that stuff very sparingly. I once had to clean all of the no ox grease off of a battery bank because guys thought more was better. I made a lot of overtime on that debacle. Working with power plant equipment I learned that you only need a small amount, barely noticeable. Like put it on and wipe most of it off. Mobil 23.
   Make sure everything is tight and look at all of the connections. Crimps can be failure points, the fewer the better.

[timmycharger]

How much dielectric grease did you use? You should only put on that stuff very sparingly. I once had to clean all of the no ox grease off of a battery bank because guys thought more was better. I made a lot of overtime on that debacle. Working with power plant equipment I learned that you only need a small amount, barely noticeable. Like put it on and wipe most of it off. Mobil 23.
   Make sure everything is tight and look at all of the connections. Crimps can be failure points, the fewer the better.

Not a whole lot, enough to coat each side and wiped the rest off.