I bought my cousins husband's 85 K5 about six months ago . When i got it it ran great only 88,000 miles he was in the military and just used it to cruise around in but when he married my cousin didnt drive it as much . About two months of driving it I would lose power out of nowhere while driving numerous times lights flickering barely would run Id have to cut all power except lights and running . I bought a new battery it helped for awhile then started doing it again . so i replaced the terminals . again it helped for a bit then kept doing the same thing but now it would run great for about a week then wouldnt start out of nowhere and id have to jump it . So i started messing around with it and im not the most mechanicaly gifted but im also not incompetent . so i took off the starter and replaced the wires running to it since i noticed they were very corroded . ive finally got all four new wire spliced to the starter and im getting power but when i go to turn the key it is like it uses all of the juice in the battery ive tried jumping it but no bueno tried charging it and nothing before i turn the key im getting 12 to 14 volts but then it just goes dead before i turn the key . What i would love to do is replace all the wiring in the vehicle but i dont know how to and dont have the money to take it in since im finishing up college . I was wondering if its the alternator but i have no idea . any insight would be great from the mechanicaly inclined . thanks

 

i would first take the alternator in and get it tested most of your local car part stores do it free. if it tests fine then im not sure what you would do next but someone else on this forum will :P but let us know what you find out with the test.

 

^^^AutoZone does it free.

And look into replacing your fuel pump. Since we only have 5 digit odometers the likelihood that yours has rolled over at least once is very high, so your 88k vehicle may actually be a 188k or even 288k rig. That being said your fuel pump is probably on its last leg and might be the cause of your power loss.

My "go to" method for driveway testing the fuel pump is to turn the ignition to ON, don't try to crank it, and try and listen for your fuel pump to kick on, it should stay on for 3-5 seconds. If it stays on too long or doesn't come on at all then it definitely needs replaced.

 

What terminals did you replace?

The key connections are the ones from battery terminals to the next connections.

either end of those can be bad. Make sure the ground from the Neg terminal is good.

If there's any doubt, remove those terminals and lay them on a solid surface and smack them hard with a hammer on the point where the wires go into terminal.

An easy way to test neg side is to make sure meter probe is on good grd by putting other probe on pos batt bolt. Then as someone tries to start car, move the probe to neg bolt. If it reads voltage, the neg/grd cable is bad.

 

I'd start with the alternator also and get back to us. It's easy and more importantly for a college student, it's FREE.
Just out of curiosity, before you got it was it stored in a place where critters could get to it? They love to eat the insulation off wires causing strange electrical problems.
Not that this is related, but did you do a tune-up when you got it? Plugs, wires, air filter, gas filter, etc. Also since it'd been sitting you should also run some injector cleaner through the gas tank to try and remove any varnish.

 

The immediate problem is NOT the alternator.. Think about it.
If the volt gauge reads 12v and everything blacks out on 'start' it's either battery or terminals.
or possibly even the starter itself is dead shorted but that's rare.

After they get it started and v meter doesnt say about 14v after it runs a while THEN get alt checked. Till then it's a waste of time and effort.

Troubleshooting charts depend on proper beginning point.. based on common sense

 

good chance she has a bad ground

 

I replaced alot fo wires and what not but no official tune up like i said a thousand dollars and this thing would be strokign it im sure but righ tnow thats just not an option . All of the terminals and the battery cables are literally a day old now i did notice it needs a tune up bad . my cousin said he had the starter replaced on it before he gave it to me After class today im going to run to auto zone and see whats up with the alternator . and as for where it was stored he had it in his drive way in a suburb so nothing to bad it was just never driven .

 

Is okie stuck on the side of the road somewhere? Do we need to send out a search party? He didn't get back to us yet.