All Small Six Won’t start, making a weird clicking sound.

[ssg66stang]

Help! Sorry for the long post but I’m hoping that someone here can help me out, so I have to start at the beginning.

The car was running fairly well when a blade on my fan broke and punctured my radiator and I had to have the old radiator fix. While the radiator was out of the car, I decided to make a few other upgrades/changes. The chrome headers were rusty so I pulled the head with the header, sandblasted the header and painted it with cerakote. While the radiator was out I also decided to upgrade to stainless steel transmission cooler lines so I threw those on. In addition to all this I also replace the alternator and reinstalled the head with ARP studs and installed some LED head lights that a buddy recommended (I already had relays installed because I had already upgraded to brighter headlights a few years back). But just to be certain, I reinstalled the traditional headlights to eliminate any possibility of the headlights being the issue. Fast forward to re-installing everything. Head and headers are installed and torqued correctly, all connections are done and now she won’t start. Battery tested good as did the starter. Replaced the solenoid and still…nothing! Please watch the video and give me your recommendations (please excuse the audio, I was making the recording for a friend, explaining what was going on).

And yes, I know, I will one do one upgrade at a time from now on.

 

[hodaka100]

I would start by unplugging all the relays then put them in one at a time and check what works. It looks like all the relays are the same type but check the part numbers before you pull them. Also the relay box looks new aftermarket which is normally no where near the quality of oem. I would rather use a relay box pulled at the junkyard from a Chevy, Honda or Toyota. Does everything else work and it starts if you pull the relay for the head lights?

 

[ssg66stang]

I would start by unplugging all the relays then put them in one at a time and check what works. It looks like all the relays are the same type but check the part numbers before you pull them. Also the relay box looks new aftermarket which is normally no where near the quality of oem. I would rather use a relay box pulled at the junkyard from a Chevy, Honda or Toyota. Does everything else work and it starts if you pull the relay for the head lights?

Right now, nothing is working.

 

[bubba22349]

I couldn't get your video to play

 

[hodaka100]

If nothing is working I would start testing for power and ground at the relay terminals with the relays out. You did check for power at both sides of the fuses with the relays out? Did you pull all the relays and just plug one in at a time to see if anything worked with that one and no clicking?

 

[hodaka100]

I couldn't get your video to play

Same thing happened to me at first but I think I wasn't waiting long enough. It took a while to download. All I got out of the video is if he connected the battery the aftermarket relay box with aftermarket wires would click rapidly. If he rapidly touched the battery cable to the battery before connecting it then the relay box would not click and he could open the door to have the interior lights on but when he tried turning on the head lights all power would go out, key would do nothing.

 

[Frank]

Sir, it sounds very much like a weak ground at the battery cable. When amps are applied and everything goes out- main battery wire loosing contact. The post and cable end can look really good and still do this. . . Just a thought.

 

[bubba22349]

Got the video to play by downloading it. Yes I believe that Frank has nailed it's a Bad Ground and may also be some other Electrical Connections to, look over all of those under the hood especially if you took some them apart while working on your car. Looking at your Battery Posts and Cable connections could use a really good cleaning with a Battery Terminal Brush (or if you don't have than some sandpaper could do it) then make sure you have them tightened up snugly too. That Positive Cable is really to loose to for any amount of high current load. Good luck

 

[hodaka100]

I originally thought ground but saw everything looks new and assumed the ground was good. If ground doesn't fix it then do what I said.

 

[sixtseventwo4d]

I believe that somehow you have supplied power to the ground side of the relays.

 

[pmuller9]

Where does the large ground cable from the battery connect to?

 

[wsa111]

Problem solved, i told him to install a ground wire or strap from engine to body.
Now everything works perfect via text to

ssg66stang​

 

[hodaka100]

Problem solved, i told him to install a ground wire or strap from engine to body.
Now everything works perfect via text to

ssg66stang​

Dang! That was my original thought. Everything just looked so new in the video I didn't mention it. I should have never watched the video.

 

[ssg66stang]

Update. In addition to the engine to frame ground I also had to install a ground from the battery neg to the engine. I had a ground installed from the battery to body but she wanted one to the engine as well. As you can all tell electrical is not my forte. Thanks for all the help Bill!!!!