89 Lincoln Mark VII Bill Blass Electrical Problem

Maintenance/Repairs
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1

89 Bill Blass Mark VII electrical problem. A new battery has been installed along with a new starter solenoid. The Fuse Links off the solenoid have been checked. The problem that remains is there is no power getting to any of the electrical components of the vehicle, HOWEVER if I jumper the contacts on the solenoid the starter will crank. Could this be a voltage regulator problem or a circuit breaker problem, If it could be a circuit breaker problem where would it be located, I can’t find the location in the manuals. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

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Try connecting a length of wire between the engine bare metal and the chassis metal. Clean bolt heads on either side will work. See if the electronics work then. You may have a bad chassis ground.

3

There’s typically two wires connected to the battery positive post clamp.
A thick one to the starter solenoid. That one is OK since you could make it crank.
There’s also one or more thinner wires that power the rest of the car.
Sometimes these are attached at the solenoid.
Make sure those are all in place.

4

And have continuity. The thinner one is often a fusible link. These are supposed to display bubbled insulation when they blow, but they don’t always. A blown link will show up as no power to anything in the automobile, including the starter relay.

5

The fact that you are asking if i can be a voltage regulator problem means that you cannot diagnose this yourself.

There is a heavy battery cable going directly from your battery to the starter solenoid , then from the other side of the solenoid to the starter which is grounded to the engine. As long as you have a good battery and a good starter, jumping across the solenoid will always crank the starter and tells you nothing about the rest of the cars electrics except the batter has juice.

1 Like
6

does this 89 Lincoln Mark VII Bill Blass have an aftermarket alarm system?

Depending on how well it was wired in, this could very well be your problem- I’ve seen alarm brains or wiring go bad, causing the start or power system of the car to go down, and I’ve mostly seen this on Fords.

7

You need to see if power is getting to the main electrical panel under the hood. That panel provides power to all the circuits of the car. If the brake lights work then power is most likely getting to panel and you will next need to verify power getting to the ignition switch. The switch supplies power to almost all the fuses in the dash panel. There may be a fusible link supplying power to the main panel under the hood and it has a corrosion problem or the panel may have a normal wire connection feeding it coming from the battery or hot side of the starter solenoid. It should be pretty easy to pin down the trouble looking at those areas and doing a voltage test while try to start the engine in order to provide a good load on the system…

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If this all started after a jump start incident, or the battery was installed backwards, there’s probably some fuses and/or fusible links that have blown. If the problem is that when you turn the key to “on” nothing at all works, you can’t even run the radio, that’s where to start the diagnosis, not the starter motor. Figure out why the radio won’t power up. It can’t be that involved just for the radio. The battery power goes to the ignition switch, then either directly to the radio or to the radio via a relay (powered by the ignition switch). This will be a lot easier if you secure a wiring diagram first. Otherwise it is like being dropped into a city you’ve never been to before, without a street map. First step: Make sure the battery negative cable is making good , clean contact w/the chassis.

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When you turn the key to the RUN position do the dashboard warning lamps illuminate?

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Thanks for the input, I really appreciate it. I’ll keep you advised as to what I find.

Thanks again. Bob

11

Thanks, will do.

Bob

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Thanks, I’ll give that a try.

Bob