My '96, about once every hour of operation, will experience what appears to be a complete loss of all electrical power.

It can be at Idle, or not..at first I thought it was a gigantic miss, so replaced ignition coil..no change. The engine does not stall

Thre reason I think it is a complete loss of electrical, is it was idling at night, me outside, and I noticed the rear lights go out, as it missed.

estimated time for power loss = 1/10th sec

never noticed any reaction on instruments...its so quick

MY suspicion centres around ignition barrell, or its wiring harness

has anyone experienced these exact symptoms, and if so what was the cure?


(I have read archives, and '96 seems a bad year for ignitions & harness, as too much current flows)

 

Seeing as it is an electrical problem, have you checked your grounds? I had some electrical gremlins in my 96 and they ended up being caused by the ground on the block behind the dipstick being loose and covered in grease. Cleaned it up and tightened it up and my issues went away. I don't know if I was losing all power, but for a fraction of a second while driving I would loose all gauges and dash lights. I never noticed if I was losing rear lights or anything like that because I don't generally idle it while I'm not in it.

 

The last time I had that problem it was due to a son malfunction.

My oldest had had the battery disconnected for something, and he didn't tighten the connector, just pushed it in place. It looked fine. It wasn't.

 

That's funny...

 

So is he!

 

son rings me.."dad there is smoke coming from the front"
me.."are u sure it aint steam"
him.."dont know"...so I instruct him to park it up (split rad seam)

on the electrical,,checked terminals on newish battery..all good

Grounds are tight..I know that I will have to re-do each one personally tho

intend to lighten key chain to absolute minimum

*inspect ignition switch/harness..this is my strong suspect

supplementary info;

*has recently developed radio static, especially on startup
*all buzzer function lost (used to buzz if headlights left on)
* no ignition ring illumination

* my other 96 has an abomination of an ignition replacement barrell..hangs UNDER column, I cannot understand why it has been done like this , other than OEM parts being NLA at the time of repair...even so, I would have thought a wrecker item would have been much better

additional Question...what major current is being drawn via switch WITHOUT relay protection, (that can be reduced with a relay) ?

 

Off the top of my head, the headlights. A headlight harness is a good mod.
Maybe the blower?

 

This is why I was once going to start a service installing very loud alarm buzzers tied to the idiot lights. Every teen driver, and some wives, need one.