Electrical Gremlins.

[carnuck]

So it has a loose connection?

[Nightpath]

Funny but that never occurred to me. I've looked for missing, burnt  or corroded but not loose. Now I have to figure what would be common in ALL the interior electrical.

[Nightpath]

I'm at a loss now. All the wiring is tight and seems to be solid.

I'm almost betting on a relay / fuse / circuit somewhere that's bad. I'll pillage one of the old Eagles for all of those and swap them out.

I have noticed that my starter solenoid has a spark fly off it when I start the car. Almost betting that the starter needs to be cleaned and the mounting bolts grounded properly.

[Nightpath]

My starter had a few problems.  Wasn't grounded right, dirty as heck, etc.

I've confirmed that electrical resets when I crank the engine. All electrical.

Any ideas?

[carnuck]

I just added a new ground from my battery to the body (in my MJ) last night and my headlights are MUCH brighter now!

[IowaEagle]

Grounds are important, specially with these high draw autolite starters.  And, an extra ground to the body is always good.

[Nightpath]

A friend told me that there's usually a ballast resistor somewhere in the ignition system (besides the one on the stock coil).

Right now the starter is sucking all the current when it starts.

Any ideas where I can find this mystery dohickey?

[carnuck]

Ballast resistor will affect ignition and not much else. (it'll die when it goes bad) Most of the Gauges are controlled by a 5Volt regulator in the temp gauge.

[Nightpath]

I'm suspecting that the starter is bad. Sure it starts the car but only when it comes into play does everything reset.

Might pull a few other starters to see what happens. Won't hurt.

[carnuck]

See if someone has a clamp on ammeter to check the draw when cranking. If not that, then a voltmeter to make sure the battery isn't dropping below 10 volts (minimum needed) while cranking. If it is, probably the nose bushing in the starter is toast. I'm switching to the later style flexplate and running the shorter 4.0L starter.

[Nightpath]

When I looked at the starter I noticed the metal lid on the casing (that hides the moveable part that initiates the starter) was lifted, and so full of crud it almost made me wonder how the living heck it even still worked.

I do get a spark on my solenoid at the starter cable each time I start it. This alone tells me there's something feeding back through something.

Going to hit the graveyard and pull a few starters, see how things go

[carnuck]

If there is an arc where the cable bolts on, it means the connection is corroded or loose or both.  Sometimes the crud builds up between the tin cover and the starter stud which can cause a short too.

[Nightpath]

It's at the solenoid which is brand new and the cable is brand new. I didn't see it happen when I was looking for it this afternoon.

And my battery is dropping below 10 volts when the starter is engaged but it happens too fast to see just how low it's going.

I'll check it tomorrow when it takes a few long cranks to start.

[Mernsy]

Pull the coil wire and it will still crank but it won't start.