No juice.

I've had a lot of these in recent months. The complaint is that nothing in the car works. No horn, no lights, no starter. The battery and cables have been replaced and still no juice!! Here's a basic test you can do with a simple multimeter (e.g. Radio Shack $15.00)

Put the multimeter across the battery terminals. 12 volts?? No, then charge the battery and re-test. 12 volts? No=junk the battery and get a new one.

If you get 12 volts at the battery terminals then leave the + lead on the + battery terminal and move the - (neg) lead to the engine block - find a good clean metal surface on the engine and see if there is a 12 volt reading. No=bad ground cable from battery to the engine.

If yes then put the - lead back on the battery and move the + lead down to the next available measurement point, normally the fat lug on the starter motor solenoid. 12 volts?? No=bad battery cable or terminal.

If yes, then move the + lead to the BAT terminal on the alternator. 12 volts? No=burned out fusible link or broken wire .

Yes then move the + lead to the + terminal of the main fuse block in the car. 12 volts?? No=burned fusible or broken wire going to the fuse block.

The basic idea here is to start at the source of energy, the battery, and then move further and further away from the battery (assuming it is good) until you no longer get a 12 volt reading. Then look for burned wires, burned out fusible links and broken connectors. It's not rocket science but it does require an orderly process to isolate the problem.

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