Gus the Ghia has issues, please help him

[kasparkat]

I posted this on another topic and thought that I might get more help over here, nothing against the other side, but, well, you know.

Gus is a 1972 Ghia.

I bought Gus on Friday of last week. He ran fine. I left the hood open Friday night. Ignition was off. Started the car Friday night.

Replaced the lights in the car Saturday morning. Tested the lights and they all worked. I then cleaned out the car, leaving the doors open. No interior lights in the car, so no battery drain that way. I did not leave the key turned on long without starting it. While the key was on, there was a clicking noise from the engine. I thought that this was the fuel pump.

I went to go to the store, and Gus would not start. Nothing. No turn over, lights or anything. A friend tried to jump start it because I thought I might have drained the battery. Nothing.

I bought a new battery, today and a volt/ohm meter. I tested the old, battery while still in the car, and it is showing 12 volts and 2.32 amps. At least that I what I remember the amps were. I tested the new battery, while it was sitting on the floor. It tested the same as the one in the car. Thus, this rules out the battery issue.

Could it be the voltage regulator?

I just moved to the area here and do not know where to take Gus, so I thought I would try to troubleshoot the electircal myself first. Might save some $. Besides, I work for the power company and it would look pretty funny if I had to take it somewhere for an electrical issue. hehe.

Thank you in advance, Kim

[Speedy Jim]

Put the headlights on.
Turn Ignition switch on.

Take your nice new meter and:

Measure voltage right at the battery posts.

Now measure at the 2 cable clamps on the battery.

Now measure from some good chassis contact to the (+) post.

Now measure from the Red battery lead to the (-) post.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

You should measure 12V in each test.

Did you?

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You can test the starter battery circuit separate from the car wiring like this (Shift in Neutral!):




Did the starter crank the engine?


Speedy Jim
http://www.nls.net/mp/volks/

[kasparkat]

The lights do not come on. I tested up to the Voltage regulator, good up to that point, but could not get anything past that. I tested one side of the voltage regulator, got V's tried the other but did not get anything. Not sure of where I was measuring though. I tried all combinations. I was thinking about taking a light bulb out of the socket, turn the key on, turn the lights on just to see if I get anything at all.

Poor Gus is a mess back there. The boy that had it before me was making Bird Nest Soup out of the wiring. It is horrible. But nothing is grounded, or shorted out. I am going to start taking out the wires that go to nothing and rewire the whole car.

Gus does have an accronym with it. Gosh Ugly Sh*t. That is what he is made of. hehe.

If I need to do something else to try to narrow it down, please let me know. I am going to put on the Voltage Regulator tomorrow after work.

Thank you,
Kim

[MNAirHead]

Poor GUS (man that's a great acronym name).

To begin with.. any chance you have pictures of G-U-S.. I'm a fan of the funkity stuff.

One goofy test.. are all the fuses OK?

Triple check the wires splices (especially brown/ground) sometimes kids (or smart uncles) install stereos without reading directions.. they'll connect brown to brown, white to white, black to black etc.. in a VW the color coding doesn't match looms (wiring for stereos, trailers etc). About 1/2 of the project cars that I've run into have gremlin issues from funky wiring quick fixes.


Follow up learning question to Speedy's reply.
If it did have a ground short.. when a new battery is installed, wouldn't we blow a fuse or have the car start and quick drain the battery?

We're all learning together kasparkat, please keep us informed and updated to your progress solution and what worked/didn't work.

Thank you for posting at STF.. please consider us your internet home.

Tim

[kasparkat]

Fuses are all good, that is the first thing I checked after I did not have lights. Thank you for the input though.

This kid ran all of his own radio/stereo wires. There was nothing in the car orginally.

I will take pictures of Gus today when I get home from work and share them with you. It is pretty sad. It is going to be easier to rewire the entire car than it is going to be to troubleshoot this mess. hehe.


Thank you, Kim