350sdl acts like no battery is installed
 

Battery died in my 350sdl- dead cell - I bought a new one, started the car, drove around for 15 minutes or so.... headlights worked, radio worked, everything was good.

Came home, shut off the car--- nothing. No lights, no crank, no dash lights... nothing.

The battery is pushing voltage to the starter, but absolutely nothing works. It's like there's no battery installed in the car.

I tried hooking up another decent battery with jumper cables but it made no difference.

I installed a brand new ground strap a month or two ago.

What on earth is this? I can't find a wiring diagram for the gen2 126 so I'm a bit lost.

When you say nothing works, what about items that would normally work without the key in? Maybe the parking lights?

If they do work then my first inclination is a flaky ignition switch.

Voltage at the starter if certain indicates the ground is perhaps open. Take a jumper cable from the negative terminal of the battery to a good engine ground and see if the lights etc operate then.

It is not an everyday thing to have reciently changed the ground battery cable. Why was that done? Is there is a possibility for whatever the reason the cable was changed could be back again?

If you own a voltmeter would simplify things. When you said you had starter voltage where was the ground of the meter placed. If the negative terminal of the battery try placing the negative terminal of the meter on the engine and see if it reads voltage as well. If not you have lost your ground system somewhere.

Interior lights are not through the ignition switch either. If they too are out as well you have lost the primary supply somewhere. Your problem does not sound complex enough to need a wiring diagram.

Thanks for the responses guys.

Parking lights, interior lights do not work... nothing works. It's like it has no battery.

I had thought of ign. switch too, but because of the lights not working, I don't think that's it.

Reason for ground strap replacement was preventative. I did it when I swapped the engine out this fall.

I do have a voltmeter- that's how I found the voltage at the starter. Ground of the meter was placed a few different places just to try - engine block, negative terminal of battery, fender- all successful.

The strip fuse near the fuse box looks fine to me.

This one is quite confusing to me, that's why I was hoping to find a wiring diagram.

Main positive power cable from the battery goes to the starter on a lot of cars if not all. The positive power division usually for the car is done from that heavy starter post point terminal then.

Sounds like if there is more than one wire on the heavy cable post at the starter that is likely your overall connection problem. Follow your positive cable to the point of power division if not.

I would check and clean any connections of that type originating from the main positive cable. Chances are they might have wiggled that main cable when the battery was changed.

This could have impacted the connection or connections at the power distribution point. Then when you went to restart the car after your drive. The heavy current demand of the moment opened up the connection totally.

Same theory as when you drive your car and park it. Next time the unmaintained battery post connection goes open when the heavy starter current is demanded. It was a usable connection until that moment. This last example has happened to almost everyone at some time or another. Or to the majority of us older members at least. So far the negative part of the loop sounds fine. So it has to be on the positive side of the feed loop and fairly limited in where it can be. You are looking for a bad connection or a burnt off wire that results in the same effect.