No crank no start trouble shooting,volt drop test.

[Ricko1966]

Okay a little trouble shooting help for you. Today I went and got in the DD turned the key,click,no crank,no start. Okay well this sucks but it took 2 minutes to diagnose and I thought this was a good example of how to do a volt drop test. I grabbed my multimeter. Checked battery voltage,low but sufficient I should have had a slow crank at the worst. So dead battery eliminated as the problem. Turned on the headlights I could hear the headlight relay click but no headlights. Left the headlights on.With my meter still in volts mode from my battery check,I stabbed the center of the battery negative post with the meter negative lead,touched the intake manifold for a ground with the other lead,no voltage that's a good sign. Touched the battery positive with a meter lead and touched the starter positive lead with the other meter lead. I showed 12 volts. That's bad,what that means is the positive battery cable is carrying almost zero voltage. Let's say my battery test was 13 volts, but when I checked voltage from the battery terminal to the positive starter lead I read 12 volts on my meter with the headlights on. What that meant was the positive battery cable was only supplying 1 volt to the starter the other 12 had to be supplied through the meter. Removed the positive battery cable cleaned the battery post and the inside of the battery cable clamp. Put the cable back on,pow car started right up. 2 minute tops with the meter,checked battery voltage,checked volt drop on both cables. Problem pin pointed and fixed in less than 5 minute. A volt drop test is a super easy super valuable test for electrical problems.