Baffling Loss of Electric Power with Gas 114

[kraakevik]

Folks

My '74 M110 280C is in excellent condition and the sixth 114 vehicle I've owned since the late Seventies.

The car worked perfectly as usual on a thirty-mile jaunt. When darkness fell I turned on the headlights and stopped for fifteen minutes at a store. The car started normally but I noticed the low beams didn't seem to be working when I got back on the road.

I turned on the high beams which worked as the customary flame-throwers but didn't elicit flashing warning beams from other motorists, no doubt because of the powerful headlamps on modern vehicles.

At another stop I verified that the low beams both didn't work, the fog lamps both didn't work, but the high beams did. I decided I'd drive home on high beams.

After a twenty-minute final errand I turned the key--the dome light dimmed--no starter action at all. Dead--dead--dead. After a minute or two the dome light came back on. Turned the key--nothing.

I fished around in the black trunk and used big channel-lock pliers to twist the battery terminals slightly out of position. No change.

The battery is the heavy usual DieHard but with sealed cells--it's about three years old, with no issues to date.

The impression I got was a total short-circuit/breakdown of the battery.

Would greatly value your thoughts--alternator/diodes/regulator have worked for a decade--many thanks



Tim Kraakevik
kraakevik@voyager.net
630 940-2420

[Stretch]

Sounds to me like the alternator not charging. Charge the battery. Check the belt. Check the voltage at the battery terminals with the engine running