Yet another iginition issue, 90 Westy

[Dogsled]

Van had been sitting awhile, has house battery both reading 12.9V, house battery accessories work fine.
When starting, heard what I thought was starter, but then - nothing. Turning the key to on, the led's briefly light and then go out. When the ignition is in run mode, no power to accesories like lights & radio & dash lights - no led's.
So I replaced the ignition switch, of course.
No change. When turning the ignition to 'on" the LED's briefly light and then go out and no power apparently in run position or start.
Fuses all look ok, from the wiring diagram, looks like ignition switch would be the culprit but I have tried 2 switches all act exactly the same.
Could a starter failure disable the "run" mode?
Also weird item, turn the headlights on - nothing. Wait a minute or so and they come on! Turn the ignition key on to "run" they go out and no power.
The original, and 2 replacement switches do exactly the same thing so it is NOT the ignition switch.
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Don't make a fuss, just get on the bus...

[hdenter]

When ever strange things start to happen with wiring up front, the first thing i check is the ground cluster above the fuses. Bad grounds lead to all kinds of weird problems with the accessory switches and devices.

Good Luck!

Hans
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'79 triple white convertible bug
'84 sunroof vanagon
'85 weekender

[0to60in6min]

These are some first steps.

- Check the ground cluster behind the fuse box as suggested.

- Thoroughly clean the battery posts and connector.

[crazyvwvanman]

There is nothing on that dash ground cluster that is needed for the starter to crank the hell out of the engine when the key is turned to start.

Mark

[Dogsled]

Yep. Turns out the battery voltage was fine - 12.9V, but could not provide current. I used my heavy duty battery charger and van started immediately. The battery was 9 yrs old! Thought for sure it was newer than that. Usually battery voltage can yield a clue, first time for this. Frequently lead acid batteries will develop a shorted cell which is easy to diagnose.

Thanks for all the responses! Ground connections were cleaned as that can always be an issue, particularly the one behind the battery itself which get pasted by road grime.
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Don't make a fuss, just get on the bus...

[DanHoug]

something like the KONNWEI KW600 battery tester has been VERY handy for me with all the batteries i have around. very good correlation between the readings of CCA and what i'm observing. it's never condemned a good battery and finds the stinkers without a load test.

they send a certain frequency thru the battery and measure the internal resistance which relates to the amount of CCA it can deliver. pretty cool technology for $50.
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-dan
60% of what you find on the internet is wrong, including this post.

'87 Westy & '89 Westy both 2.1 4spd

Past projects can be found at--
www.thefixitworkshop.com

[0to60in6min]

It's good that you found the problem and the van started...

So the problem is either the battery is old or it's not transmitting the power correctly.