Been driving and enjoying the car lately after Craig did a major off the car carb cleaning and had a strange incident last weekend. Went for a Sunday cruise following the route we have used when we last cruised as a group. Stopped a couple of times along the way finishing up at Costco to pickup a few things on the way home. Came out to the car turned the key and absolutely nothing, not a sound. Have never had an issue with starting or charging before.
Looked around under the hood and saw nothing obvious so called for a tow. While waiting we grabbed a couple of tools at Wally world as I had nothing with me, I know...
The PO had installed one of those battery isolators and when I was wiggling and checking things under the hood it broke off in my hand. I though great just a grounding issue, should be good to go once I hook the ground strap back up sans the isolator thingy. Should also note that the lights were nice and bright so no issue with the battery/alternator. Hooked the ground strap up and still nothing, by this time the tow truck arrived so we towed it home.
Once home I checked for voltage and got 12.8v at the battery and 12.55v at the starter. Also tried rapping on the starter a few times with no change. I hooked up my DVOM to ground at the battery and the starter lead to the ignition and turned the key and only got 9.5v? Even though the battery was reading good I hooked up a charger and tried the key and vroom??
Took it to Altra Battery and load tested everything and did 3 consecutive starts, everything looks fine and the car continues to restart. I'm kinda stumped at this point, it seems like more than a coincidence that the battery isolator broke off at the same time the starter was dead silent but it should have been good once the ground was hooked up direct??
Also Matt, can I move this thread to the Build section? I'd like to document the changes I hope to get done in the future. I was going to move it but wasn't sure about the process that I don't lose anything. screw up links etc.