Electrical WTF!! HELP PLEASE!! olds 307

Sounds wierd, like the ignition is already "On" when you connect the battery. Have you checked to see if power is going to the ignition coil even though the key switch is turned off?

Maybe a wire on the alternator that supposed to get power only with ignition "On" is connected directly to the battery side of the alternator.

I did that one time by mistake while the car was running- I jumpered some wires to check for voltage drop etc. and incorrectly jumpered power to the "Ignition" side of the alternator, then the car wouldn't shut off.

ok i believe there should be a wire from the batt goin to the distributor ...

I have an '86 Olds "G" Cutlass factory service manual. I can scan and email any of the wiring diagram pages that you need. Send me a PM or an email to: [email protected].

Bill

The white and brown wires look exaclty like the ones that go in the dizzy. One is for POWER/ BATT+ and the other is for TACH.

Take your distributor cap off and spin in 180* and put it back on so that the plug-ins are on the driver side.

Those connectors you're holding in the second pic plug into the distributor cap.
The white plug with the pink wire is for the battery, the brown plug is for the tach.

pimplogic said:

ok i believe there should be a wire from the batt goin to the distributor ...

Click to expand...

The "batt" connection is like Blake said... it's supposed to be turned on/off with the ignition switch. If it doesn't turn off, something is wired wrong or shorted. The purple wire in this pic is likely for the starter solenoid:

If you attach a voltmeter to it and have 0v in start/crank, then something is either wired wrong or not connected (could be no power to column switch, could be disconnected harness on column switch, could be NSS disconnected, could be someone rewired it at some point). The two red wires next to the purple wire are likely for power to the fuse block, were they originally run down to the same lug on the starter as the positive battery cable? There should be a 3rd and 4th I believe, but I'm a little fuzzy there (had to do a repair to mine on the side of the road one day a few years back). Double check and see if you have any larger gauge wires running to the bulkhead on the driver's side of the engine compartment (where the wires go through the firewall), that may be part of your issue (why there's no power) if those are indeed the 12v feed wires to the fuse box. There's also a chance (unlikely if you haven't messed with the ignition switch on the column at all besides connecting the harness) the ignition switch is out of adjustment.

This looks like it could be for a ground of some sort, but I'm not sure what for, there aren't many places that would require a ring terminal that size (only things that come to mind are the battery lug on the starter solenoid, or a bolt on the block - when it would be used as a ground).


The red plug I'm not sure about, could be HVAC-related, or if you have the original carb, double check and see if it goes to something there. Did the car originally have an air pump? I believe there's some sort of solenoid or valve that has wiring going to it, but all the G-Bodies I've messed with have had that stuff removed for a long time.