Just replaced the Radiator and water pump, afterwords when I open the doors or try to start it the A/C compressor clutch clicks and motor will not turn over, the headlights do not turn on at all.

Checked battery is good, was able to jump the stater relay and it turned over.
88 econoline E150 5.0
Any ideas?

Thanks
Jerry

 

Check your grounds . You may have accidentally left one loose .

 

most "absolutely weird" electrical problems are a symptom of a bad ground somewhere. double check everywhere you worked for a loose wire, its probably a much needed ground.
if you don't find anything, take your jumper cables (the ones you use to help your buddy who killed his battery), and connect them from battery ground to good clean metal on the engine, and the cleanest metal you can find on the body or frame. this will provide an additional ground to everything, and will temporarily make things work properly if grounding is your issue.
if this does make things work normally, look again for the loose ground cable, and if you can't find it, buy some heavy wire and add additional grounds.

 

Thanks guys I will check it out today.

Jerry

 

Thank you very much we got it, use the jumper cables trick ended up needing a ground from the battery to the frame now all is well.

Jerry

 

Glad you got it sorted!

 

Adding thanks for updating your own post----this same info might be helpful to others too.

Reps sent all 'round!

 

Like JWA said, thank you for the follow-up on the solution. During my tech rep years, getting a callback on which thing fixed it was like gold.

Thanks,
jim

 

Yeah, thanks from me as well for the followup...and thanks to Josh for the good tip on troubleshooting grounds by using jumper cables.

George

 

IMHO, most vehicle manufacturers supply their new product with a barely adequate number of grounding connections. Obviously, increasing the number will also raise the cost of the vehicle, and for those that are, say, 0-6 years old, the number is acceptable. But, for something that's been on the road for 10, 15, 20, or more years, grounding becomes a major source of electrical glitches. The chassis connections are all rusty and dirty, and the engine connections are all coated in a sludgy mix of oil, grease, other engine fluids, and dirt and rust.

How many of us who work on our own vehicles, even professional mechanics, take the time to clean and de-rust all of the ground connections on our pride and joy? Not many, I suspect.

Case in point: AFAIK, almost all alternators manufactured over the last 40 years or so have a post to ground the thing to the chassis. And yet the number of us that use it properly is likely very low. Why? Because the manufacturer never used it, and we just re-install our replacements just like the factory did. YET, grounding the alternator to the frame directly would obviate a whole boatload of potential problems. I must here admit that I am guilty of the same, even while knowing from personal experience the benefits of that extra ground connection.

Just sayin'.

 

Excellent point about grounding the alternator---something I'd never considered.

 

Corrosion is always overlooked, how many alternators have you done and see the white powder all over the bracket, dont think nothing about it, just bolt in the new one and off we go. One day in the shop I did A test on a diesel alternator, direct install, brought up the rpms to 2500, and using my carbon pile meter maxed out at 65 amps. Took the alternator back off took my whizzer wheel to all the mounting points on the alt bracket, and did the test again 95 amps, thought it was low because its rated at 140 amps, took a 10 ga wire went from the spare stud on the alt and ran it to the battery, waited a few for the meter to cool off, than ran the test, 138 amps at 2500 rpm's, Amazing what happens when everyone is in a hurry to throw things in and not even thinking about the consinquences . No wonder there is no returns on electrical parts.

 

Just so i understand: the 10 ga wire was a ground wire to the - side of the battery (added a ground wire to the alternator)? thanks,...jack