Sway5000

My 94 Hatch (B20B Swapped/ OBD1) has developed a strange issue. I swapped my starter and upon trying to start the car, when I turned the key to the "ON" position all of my dash lights lit up, and my fuel pump primed (the normal stuff), but when I turned the key to "START" I lost all power to the car. When I check my battery with a voltmeter it has ~12.77V, however if I check other points immediately after the power is "knocked out" where I should see ~12V or the same as battery voltage, I will see less than ~12V and it will gradually rebuild to ~12V. I'm totally confused as to what the issue may be, as it did not exist before I changed my starter. Any pointers?

mk378

Bad connections at the battery.

First measure with voltmeter leads on the tops of the lead posts that are part of the battery. This should be a steady 12.6 volts or so. If that voltage goes away, the battery itself is run down or defective.

Then measure on the terminals that are part of the car. This should be the same as at the battery. If it goes away, you have a bad connection between the terminal and the post. Remove the terminal from the battery and clean the inside of the terminal and the outside of the post. Loosen the clamp nut completely and spread the ends of the terminal apart. When you put the terminal on, it needs to go all the way down and touch the top of the battery. There should be some of the lead post showing above the top of the terminal. Then tighten the nut.

Sway5000

First and foremost Thanks for responding. So as you have mentioned, when I test my battery, I get ~12.7 volts. Now when I'm able to go inside the car and turn the key to the on position, I will get dash lights on etc, once I turn the key to start lose all power. Even when I cycle the key off back to the on position, I have absolutely no power to the vehicle. at that point, when I check my voltage, I still have ~12.7 at my battery (checking positive post to negative), however when I check the wires going into the fuse box with the negative lead of the multimeter on the negative battery post, I get less than 12V or the voltage I should see from checking at the battery. Thats the strangest part. After some time passes I can get back into the car & turn the key to the on position & I will have power again. I switched out the ground from the battery to the chassis & still no luck. I think I may switch the starter again as well just to cover bases. I literally only disconnected the negative battery cable & the wires on the starter so I'm perplexed by the issue.

mk378

Find out where the voltage is being lost. Turn on the key and leave it on so there is a load on the system. Measure across each connection. For example one lead on the battery + post, the other on the car + terminal. A good connection will be very near zero volts. A bad connection will show a large voltage.

Sway5000

PROBLEM SOLVED!

So I started checking the continuity in the wires and I found no open circuits. So I was checked all the wires from the positive battery post connector and found the voltage drop there. I took the wires out and discovered corrosion on the bottom of the wires going into the positive battery post connector. So I switched that out, and problem solved. Once again Thanks a million for the help!