Ammeter wires are disconnected under the hood.

____ ok good.

I will keep investigating for sure. I realize every little bit of voltage drop adds up and want to fix it fully. But if it comes time for storage for winter, I may have to take (as we say at work) a tactical pause.

____ everyone has priorities.


Thanks for explaining the fusible link.


A coworker mentioned putting an inline fuse instead of a fusible link. I'm not so sure about that.

____ You're correct to be skeptical. While both fuses and links are for circuit protection, they operate very differently and serve different purposes. A fuse is designed to blow if there's any overloading of a circuit. A link is designed to carry current until an overloading situation lasts too long. Basically a very slow blow fuse.

But what amp fuse would be suitable if that's a viable route? I can only cut so much more off the positive cable pigtail before I run out of wire if it blows the fusible link and needs another one added.

____ not a big deal. You can crimp a terminal to the wire and attach it to the bolt on the clamp. Note also that the link can attach either to the battery or the junction, as long as it's between those 2 points it doesn't really matter.

Hoping the fusible link will be good since they had one in the ammeter wiring and it never blew from what I can tell, but will check those when I inspect the wires when I pull them all the way out.

You can just put a longer bolt on the top style clamp. I recommend stainless.

And, for side terminal, I use 3/8 coarse thread bolts and nuts. Thread the bolt all the way in by hand, then tighten the nut down on the cable.

I added those notes to my sheet I have saved with other notes. Good info to know. Thanks.

I was able to test a few things tonight.

Voltage drop test

Junction block left (fusible link) key on run 13mV and cranking 50mV

Junction block right (main harness power) key on run 14mV and cranking 50mV


____ dramatic improvements there. Good!

Solenoid 1269mV with test lead from battery positive to wire ran to solenoid


____ still sketchy here.

Solenoid 9.55V when cranking

NSS in 549mV when cranking


____ indicates problem between battery and nss

NSS out 578mV when cranking

____ negligible drop through switch. Good.

Tested with ground for voltage

Ignition tab in fuse box is 12.21V

Battery was 12.3V

____ battery needs charged.

Looks like I picked up voltage to the ignition tab as well. I will remove the wiring that was going to the ammeter at a later date and check it for any issues. It is still under the hood, but disconnected and secured.


_____ it seems you're losing voltage to the solenoid and about half of the drop is before the NSS and half after. 1269-578=about 600.
Power gets to the NSS through the bulkhead. Power gets to the solenoid through the bulkhead. I'd be looking really closely at that.

Was thinking today about voltage drop. When the car wouldn't start with either the key or bypass it was obviously because it wasn't getting enough voltage to the solenoid. It would start when jumped with cables or the plug in charger/jumper at home every time and most times with the jump box. I am guessing the jumper cables (14.5V or so from the other car) and the plug in charger/jumper would put out at least that so with voltage drop, it was enough to the solenoid. If the jump box puts out the same as a battery (12.6V or so) it would work sometimes like the battery. I see now how the voltage drop can really mess with you. In theory, if I put a jumper wire from the battery and touch it to the wire inside the car that goes to the solenoid, it would work every time as it is direct voltage. I'm not going to do anything crazy with wiring, but was just thinking and wanted to make sure I was absorbing the concepts. I have not paid attention if it fires right back up when shut off with the key since the battery voltage is slightly higher at that point versus when it's been sitting for a few days and at "rest".