74 maverick voltage loss at starter solenoid. please help!

I wud say 10v is low w/ the car running no matter what accessories on at the time. I get close to 14v on my system no matter what I have on at any particular time.

 

That's what I was thinking too... Thanks bro

 

To what gauges are you referring?? Nothing stock in a Maverick other than a gas gauge...

Assuming a good power source, voltage should be within close to what's at battery, there is almost always a little loss on the smallish wires that have some length...

 

I have an aftermarket set of sunpro gauges mounted on the bottom of the dash. Temperature, voltage, and oilpressure. I have them wired to the starter solenoid, on the ignition side to power lights and the voltage gauge as the key is on

 

I do have a smaller gauge long wire. May b a culprit as well, but the voltage at the ignition post of the starter solenoid, I have 10 v before the wire.

 

I could mount the voltage gauge signal wire in a different location,(like the battery terminal) and my gauge would read higher voltage, but I would think there should be at least 12 v coming out of the starter solenoid to supply the rest of the car,( other than the charging system). Or does is there a reducer for the voltage that goes inside the cab? Like 12 v under the hood but 10 for the interior? I know these are rookie questions and I apologize in advance. Lol.

 

And thanks for all the help everyone!

 

The gauge & length of wire, plus load will reduce voltage but should not be two volts... Power to interior feeds through bulk head connector to ign & light switch(yellow wire), if there is 2v drop on that wire you need to find out why...

Wiring diagram, ign sw in lower right of second page, have fun, these old diagrams are difficult to follow...

http://www.maverickcomet.com/Wiring/MavWiring/1974/1974mainMav.pdf

 

That will help immensely. Thx k.c.

 

Are u measuring voltage at the batt/solenoid w/ a volt/ohm meter? I wud measure all the voltages u have mentioned w/ a volt/ohm meter to C if they match or come close to what U are seeing on the Sunpro's. I think those stero amps will not operate below something like 9.5 volts. Check those readings w/ external meter.

 

I did with my fluke d.V.o.m. alternator@ 14.50, battery @ 14, voltage at ignition post of starter solenoid@ 10

 

And yes, ur right. It needs at least9.50 to function. I replaced other components described in the thread about to get the voltage from 8.50 to 10. Now my stereo is up and working fine, but I still want to find where that darn short is. Tomorrow I'm gonna try to look into the supply wire and then look into sore resistance checks for the others... Been eliminating the culprits 1 by 1 tho

 

BTW I just looked and both the '73 & '74 diagram are missing a tie point for the yellow wire where it branches off to ign switch, car would never run wired per diagram...

The '72 diagram is correct, if you can't find point I'm referring to, check the '72...

http://www.maverickcomet.com/defaultCookies.asp?T=460855635&UserName=&dock=&Offset=240&LOC=

 

The ign post of solenoid(red/green wire) is point AFTER power to coil feeds from resistor wire, it will never have 12v with engine running(NOTE this is not same resistor across charge indicator light, that one is green/red)... With ign on, engine not running(no load)it should have close to battery voltage...