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Intermittent no crank no start


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So I am new to the forum and new to pathfinders. I have a 92 pathfinder that has a pretty random no crank no start. If you jump it it will start with a bit of cranking. Before jumping the instruments do nothing, no start up light check etc. Battery voltage last time was 12.8 volts(as measured with multimeter AT battery) but it acted like it was under 9 volts, even the battery volts gauge on the dash said 6v. I thought about shot gunning and swapping the battery cable for a factory piece and that was 160 bucks, so no chance of that happening. Thoughts?

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I would start by checking the condition of the battery terminals--that white/blue sulfur rabies they like to make around the posts is not good for electrical conductivity. Clean those up, make sure they're on tight, and check the cables themselves for corrosion.

 

Does the battery read 12v with the key on? A well and truly knackered battery may show voltage just sitting there, but drop off as soon as you load it. Bad connections can cause the same effect, but you should be able to tell if the battery itself is bad by testing at the posts.

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Next time it doesn't crank, test the voltage on the battery posts (will probably read 12), then check the voltage on the battery clamps. may read less. A bad connection to the battery will certainly cause intermittent no-start. If you want to test your battery directly, hookup your multi-meter directly to the posts and crank. If the draw down is to 9 volts or less, you have a bad battery. If not, I would clean and reconnect your cables as step 1.

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Ok, I should have shared more. LOL.

I did all the basic stuff. Terminals are good, there is 0.0 volts lost between the battery terminal and the battery connector. That is all clean. Batt 2 awg cables are good to go, 12.68 volts at starter. There was low voltage at the terminal on the ignition switch (where you put the key in), 8.6 volts. There was 4 volts loss across the wires somehow. I cleaned up the connections around the battery and all along the black/ white wire from the igntion to the battery.

My new question is does anyone have a picture of what a 92 battery terminal looks like? Mine is fubar, has all sorts of hack job wiring done to it. I want to make sure I have fusable links at the pos terminal, but what it has now is scary.

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Mine has all kinds of things added from po, so I can't take a factory pic for you.

 

Above post is not clear. Did you end up with full voltage at the ignition after the terminal cleaning?

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There is a difference between voltage and amperage. I've seen "fully charged" 13v batteries that did not have the amperage to light a lamp. It isn't as common but an alternator can fail in a way where voltage is up and amperage isn't. Or the battery doesn't hold the amperage anymore.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have an all stock 92, so I'll try and grab some pics sometime soon for you. One thing that may help is checking the ignition switch in the steering column. I would get intermittent no crank because the back end of the switch was coming loose from the body of the switch, so when I turned the key to crank it wouldn't engage the terminals properly. Zip tied it tight again, and now it starts first key turn every time.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have a stock 92 with TD27T engine and had the same behavior. There is an intermittent hard starting in the morning. Checked the battery voltage and it is at 12VDC. I noticed that whenever I turn on the AC, the voltage drops to 11VDC and sadly to 9VDC at night. I had a suspicion that it is the alternator that is not correctly charging the battery but it gives a charge of 12V. I had it checked by a friend who is an automotive technician. He disassembled everything. Checked the IC regulator, the winding and armature and it is all good. He noticed that there a burned bolt for the alternator ground. The technician replaced the bolt with an ordinary one lying on the shop. Re-assembled the alternator and did a bench test and was able to generate a 13.6VDC. Returned the alternator to the engine and started the engine. It started to generate the 13.6VDC~14.5VDC. That fixed the problem.

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