Van died suddenly...

[deskinthewoods]

Driving home today, raining, but not torrential and no big puddles. Turn onto my street and the van dies. No dash warning lights but the dash illumination lights (and I assume headlights) stayed on. Turned the key to try to start it and nothing. No dash lights. No click. But still the dash illumination lights.

I opened up the engine bay and checked for a loose battery connection, loose IP solenoid connection. I couldn't see anything out of place.

As it was raining I got back in the driver's seat to think...and 30 seconds later the dash warning lights all came on (I'd left the key in the "on" position). Turned the key and it started right up and I drove the rest of the way home.

So, hive mind, what do you think?

[deskinthewoods]

After pondering, I think the problem is somewhere in the neighbourhood of the ignition switch, specifically the power to the switch...maybe in the connector...It's a brand new OEM switch this spring...

Anybody?....

[deskinthewoods]

I think I tracked it down to a loose fusible link. Crimped the female side a bit, cleaned it and hit it with dielectric grease. See how it goes…

[lrp374]

I had something like that happen to me a few years ago. I had a 120 km drive to pickup some stuff. When I got back in the van my A/C wouldn't work. It had always worked great from the day I bought it. I fiddled around with it a little during the summer trying to get it working but no luck. The next spring I started checking all the piping, pressures and wiring. I could get the compressor to work with a jumper and it produced cold air. I followed the wiring to the relays. Everything checked out. I forced the A/C again and found out the problem. The fusible link would measure the voltage correctly when there was no current. As soon as the relay was to operate the voltage would go to zero. A quick snip with the wire cutters solved the problem and it's work fine ever since. That mess of fusible links and connections is likely 80% of weird problems like you had. I bet your problem is solved period!!

[jackleg]

comrades, thanks for posting.....