Occasional no crank, no click, no power at all

[chromecarz00]

This happens once in awhile on my 71 Super. There's no click, no power to anything, but there's still 12.54 volts in the wires to the ignition switch and on the batteries and generator, and all hot fuses. Sign of an ignition switch going bad? If so, what's the right replacement? Mine has 5 large terminals and 2 small ones.

If I turn it off and come back to it a few minutes later, everything works fine.

Thanks

[Cusser]

[chromecarz00]

Terminal voltage is 11, is definitely a good battery.

It's tough to check voltage at those times because it's sporadic. But what you're saying is to see if even though all the fuses have power, to see if the ignition coil has power or not?

[ashman40]

Here's my suggestion for testing the things Cusser mentioned:

First step, find the #50 starter solenoid wire below the rear seat. There is a junction there. Disconnect the two wires from the junction. Do not let them touch anything as they are NOT fused and WILL short out. After separating them, wrap them in a rag. Separating these wires disables the starter solenoid for testing. The junction is the heavy gauge red wire (grey sleeve) + red/black wires that come together at a junction in the center of this pic:



With your voltmeter, test the voltage at the end of the red/black wire in the pic. This wire comes from the ignition switch and should have battery voltage when you turn the ignition key to the START position. Test it 10x. What is the voltage reading you get?

With the #50 wire still disconnected, go around to the engine and disconnect the black #15 wire from the ignition coil #15 (+) terminal. Again, be careful as this wire is also NOT fused. Of all the black wires connected to the #15 terminal this will likely be the thickest and will be the only wire with 12v at the end when you remove it from the coil. It provides the power from the ignition switch to the ignition coil.
Test the voltage at the end of this disconnected wire while the ignition key is in the RUN/ON position and in the START position. In BOTH positions the voltage should be close to battery voltage. Test it a few times and check if wiggling the ignition switch or holding the key in slightly different positions causes a disruption/change in the voltage. This could indicate bad contacts inside the ignition switch.

One more location to test is at the ignition switch itself. In '71 the wires were soldered to the bottom of the ignition switch. If you crawl under the steering column and look up under the ignition switch you should see a collection of wires soldered to the ignition switch. Here are some of the wire colors and their function:
Red = #30, constant 12v from the battery
Black = #15, switched 12v for the ignition system and other ignition switched devices. 12v while the ignition is in the RUN/ON position and the START position.
Black/yellow = #X, accessory circuit has 12v while in the RUN/ON position but 0v while in the START position.
Red/black = #50, starter solenoid circuit has 12v while the switch is in the START position.

When you finish testing don't forget to reconnect all the wires.
_________________
AshMan40
---------------------------
'67 Beetle #1 {project car that never made it to the road }
'75 Beetle 1200LS (RHD Japan model) {junked due to frame rot}
'67 Beetle #2 {2019 project car - Wish me luck!}

[dirtkeeper]

[chromecarz00]

11 Volts while cranking.

Everything seemed fine, voltage wise. Today, I drove it briefly, parked it, went back to start it 2 minutes later and only got a click. Tried again a few minutes later, and it started up fine.

This is different from other times where voltages are fine and there's no clikc at all. thoughts?

[VW_Jimbo]

Sounds like a dirty connection. Clean your battery terminals. Check ground at tranny nose cone. Check for clean connection at starter stud and at 50 circuit to solenoid.
_________________
Jimbo

There is never enough time to do it right the first time, but all the time necessary the second time!

[chromecarz00]

Dirty connection? Would that cause occasional lack of crank and click?

[ashman40]

[Disaster06]

I had an issue like this years ago on a newer car. I had a Scion that I messed around with the engine from time to time.

I guess I had a screw that held on the ground strap and I had a little corrosion on it. Most times the car would work, until it wouldn't and I would have to mess around with it, push start, etc.

When AAA would come out, battery was fine, we couldn't figure it out.

After cleaning the corrosion off the strap as well as the screw, never happened again.

I would definitely check your grounds

[chromecarz00]

Just left town for a week, but grounds sounds like it could be the issue. I had an issue with my old Volvo in which the instrument cluster threw every single code possible, then on restart went back to normal.

[ashman40]

There are only two ground straps that the starter depend on:

Battery negative (-) cable to chassis under the rear seat.

Transmission ground strap at the front end of the transmission. This grounds the engine and transmission to the rest of the car.

Both of these points must transfer the entire current load for the starter (100A+). If either cable is frayed or does not have a clean metal-to-metal contact it could cause problems.
_________________
AshMan40
---------------------------
'67 Beetle #1 {project car that never made it to the road }
'75 Beetle 1200LS (RHD Japan model) {junked due to frame rot}
'67 Beetle #2 {2019 project car - Wish me luck!}

[chromecarz00]

So I'm thinking that I may have a trans strap at all - can anyone confirm?

https://i.imgur.com/EIbSIRh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/LIPO84S.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/P8BxYdc.jpg

[ashman40]

[joey1320]

There definitely doesn't seem to be a ground strap in your car
_________________
**1971 Super Project
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0

[chromecarz00]

That could explain it! Can I use one off the shelf or do I have to go with vw

[joey1320]

[chromecarz00]

Can it go to any bolt on the gearbox to the bolt on the engine mount?

[Q-Dog]

Do it like this. You don't want itto hang too low. No reason to reinvent the wheel.

_________________
Brian

'69 Dune Buggy
'69 Beetle Convertible
'70 Beetle

[chromecarz00]

Today, I got a situation where I got no click, no power to auxillaries, and regular voltage all around (12.4, including on the wires to the ignition switch).

I was positive the ignition switch had gone bad. Then a few minutes later, I came back and had power again, with a clicking at solenoid. Then I tried to manually jump turn over the solenoid, and it turned over. Then I went back to the ignition switch, and it started fine.

I will be mounting the grounding strap as shown above, but the fact that the auxillaries had no power leads me to believe a problem with ignition switch as well, no?