96 855 T Went dead, lights out FIXED (I hope)

[JimBee]

EDIT:
After checking the ground cable visually and for continuity, both blue ground cables seemed okay. Then a really mysterious thing happened. Standing on the ground in rubber soled shoes, I touched a wrench to the positive cable clamp and got a fat spark, followed immediately by what sounded like the fuel pump pulsing up some pressure, just briefly. The key was at position II. But the system was still dead. What surprised me was that the spark seemed to occur on top of the clamp where I touched the wrench but maybe it was one of the wire terminals that connect to the main battery clamp. It seemed like a clue, so with the ground cable disconnected from the battery, I loosened the positive cable clamp and rotated the 3 terminals on that clamp bolt. They looked quite corroded. Touched the ground cable back to the battery post and—bingo, full power. After cleaning up all the wire terminal surfaces with a wire brush, using a new, slightly longer bolt on the B+ clamp, all seems good.

Well, almost all. I now have "tracks off" and ABS lights that I didn't have before. After we got it started last night, I got into some mud backing up a slight grade to its parking spot, so the wheel sensors might have taken some spatter. I don't recall cleaning up the sensors on this car, so they probably would need to be done anyway.




Couldn't have died in a better place though, side street with open curb space. Lucky, there. I have AAA towing, kind of hated to waste it on a 1 mile tow, which is how close I was to home.

Battery was okay, key switch hasn't caused a problem. I did notice the courtesy lights by the rear view mirror and the door jamb marker light were on but dim. LED on radio was on. Alarm LED on dash was on.
So I got it towed back to my place. The tow truck driver was convinced the battery was dead. He hooked up his jumper pack and everything was still dead except the couple of small lights that were dimly lit. He rotated his jumper cable clamp on the negative battery. Still nothing. Then he jiggled that clamp again on the negative cable and suddenly all the power came back on. Engine started right away. The cable connection to the battery was tight.
It was dark by the time we got it back and started, so I haven't worked on it tonight but I'm thinking it must be a corroded negative battery ground cable.
I've never had this happen before, but I'm thinking if the main ground cable connection opened, there would be no primary circuit. It wouldn't help that the alternator is good (hopefully still is) because that ground cable keeps both the alternator and the battery in the loop with the rest of the electrical system. True?
I've read the MVP thread on rebuilding the ground cable, but don't recall if the symptoms were like mine.
Also, now the TRACS and ABS lights are on. Haven't had that before. Fun.

[tryingbe]

There are only two negative cables, one from the battery to under the battery tray, and the other to the engine block.

[erikv11]

Grounds, flaky alternator, electrical portion of the ignition switch. Hope it sorts out easily.

[cn90]

Look into B+ cable issue.

[JimBee]

I had that all apart this summer and cleaned everything up with brass wire brush wheel where I could and using a dab of dielectric grease on connections. But I must have missed something. The power came back on when the tow truck driver wiggled his powerpack clamp on the battery ground cable, so that's where I'll begin checking. Even with the main power off, I still had a little leaking through lighting those small bulbs dimly, plus the radio LED and alarm LED worked. That's what leads me to believe it was a weak connection and the "wiggle fix" should make it easy to replicate. We'll see....

Thanks all for the ideas!

[abscate]

You could have a broken battery terminal, but a bad ground cable is much more likely.