Motorhome engine and generator not starting nothing, no headlights either

[jeff york]

I suddenly have a no starting seeming dead battery situation. The engine, 454 and the generator have no starting power. The battery is fully charged. I also have no headlights or other exterior lights. As if the battery is disconnected. Here is what I noticed two days ago. I have a wire under the dash that has been tapped into. When I bumped against this wire, I could here something in the inverter panel click. As if a solenoid was clicking. I pulled the electrical tape off the wire and saw an ugly loose spice and the wire appears to come straight off the ignition. Last night I opened the inverter panel to inspect the panel and measure some voltages and check all fuses. What I believe is the red battery wire coming in has zero volts. What I believe is the coach battery red coming in has 12.8 VDC. I also checked all the fuses in the inverter and the fuses on the inside of the firewall. I do not know if there is a fuseable  link on or along the battery cable somewhere. My guess is that loose connection under the dash continued to make and break the connection after I let it go two days ag, This lead to maybe a fuse link or maybe the relay between the coach battery and engine battery burning up. Its a 1977 Airstream 454 P30 chassis. Any thoughts ? ideas. 

[Rich Thomas]

Jeff ,this is the exact same thing that happened to the Palace two weeks ago. It's the G 30 chassis but may be close in the electrics as yours. my problem was a fuse-able link from the main red wire from the battery to the fuse block  It is fed from the starter to the fuse block. the link was the first 6-8 inches of lead from the starter end.

[Casey Chinook]

I have a cut off switch that separates my engine's battery from the coach, I am sure if you have this you have made sure it is on.. just a thought, started to start mine once and everything was dead, and it was like what?? Oh yea,the engine switch is off

[david craft]

could be ammeter??  if it has one...

[Lakota Wolf]

I had similar problem on my chevy truck. Was the connections at the starter. With the starter and wires close to the exhaust manifold, it made me he wires/cables brittle till they lost good connection. This may not be your problem, just adding another electrical problem source.

[Casey Chinook]

Do you have to have your ignition key turned to ACC or can the ignition be completely turned off and the radio will work? If that is the case, your ground to engine could still be bad. If the radio hot wire is straight to the battery, and the radio is grounded, it will work fine and your engine and lights still may not be getting power.

I know you are chasing that wire you touched and heard something click, I would disconnect that wire completely and see if the lights and engine will start. That splice is after the ignition switch, which leads me to believe you are not getting 12 volts to the ignition or light circuit.

I think my RV has two grounds, maybe three, I would have to go research...did you work on anything under the chassis that you could have bumped a ground wire to the frame?

[jeff york]

keep the thoughts coming. I will use these ass my check off list. Since the radio works and it is obviously directly connected to the battery, that would leas me to think the battery grounds and power cable is working to the ignition which I believe it the hot side that the radio is connected to. But, it could have a wire going directly to the battery and therefore I am back to checking main battery connections again. Im still stuck on bumping that wire causing something like a fusible link to fry. I say that because I think after I left the thing sitting a few days that maybe that loose wire was causing either the dual battery connector to fry in the invertor or a fusible link to fry. But, I am going to check all the things you guys have suggested as a check off.

[Casey Chinook]

I have trouble thinking it is that wire unless it has shorted out the entire system.  I would think that the ignition key does not need to be turned on to have headlights . If that is the case, the lights should come on, if they don't it seems to indicate that 12 volts is not getting to the light circuit or the ignition circuit.  You might want to leave your headlights on while you are messing with the wires, you may get the headlights to flicker that would indicate you just touched something that completed the circuit. Also, grab that battery ground cable and move it back and forth  and see if the headlights flicker .My thoughts follow Dwayne's comment on the grounds.

[So ska noname]

If the wire has a splice in one spot maybe spliced another. Do you know where other end is at? Can you run a new piece using the "fish"method? To me you make small loops on the wire that you are replacing and the new piece--just to connect the two,pieces temporarily. Electrican tape together. Go to other end and pull through, reconnect.

[Casey Chinook]

Hey Jeff,

I has the same thing happen on my Son's Jeep. New battery and no start or lights. His battery cable from the engine ground to the battery had good tight connections. After checking everything else, we came back to the battery ground cable itself, replaced it, and it started right up. 

Casey

[Dwayne]

I feel your pain. You might check the ground on the block. Maybe something did get bumped loose, you could tighten the wire splices. I could say all kinds of things to try but I am just reading your posts and not in front the problem. Good luck