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TheClarkster · 03-28-2004, 05:45 PM

I'm going to start off by saying that this is my first post in Motors, so if I leave something out, tell me and I'll go get the info.

It's a 1958 Ford Fairlane 500 Skyliner retractable hardtop.
352 interceptor engine.
V8 4 bbl
Automatic transmission.
Umm.. it's been sitting in our garage for about 6-7 years collecting dust, and possibly allowing rats to chew on wires, which is where the problem starts.
My friend and I decided it would be a good project to try and get this thing running again since it's quite a beast of a car. We cleaned out the air filter, bought fresh oil, changed the oil and oil filter, added some fresh gas, changed all the spark plugs, put some MMO in there and everything that should be required to get it back to running condition.
Then, we turned to the battery. After attaching the charger to it, it would start charging at 2 or 10 amps fine, but then it would switch over to 50 all by itself, and then switch back to the original power. It did this with each charger we tried.
Then, we unattached the battery from the car and tried charging it. This worked fine and the battery held a charge. But then, upon attaching the battery to the car once again, you could hear the battery boiling within as soon as both connecters touched the battery. And to boot, if you tried to attach a charger to it, it would cause lots of sparking even when done correctly.

So now, I turn to you. Could it be something in the electrical system that the rats chewed through which causes a short of some kind? We know the engine's not dead because once we actually got the engine to turn a bit, but now when you turn the key, nothing happens.
Any ideas would be helpful, and sorry if I rambled a lot.

-Clark

03-28-2004, 05:45 PM	#1 (permalink)
TheClarkster Very Proud of Ya Location: Simi Valley, CA	58 Fairlane Skyliner Starting problem I'm going to start off by saying that this is my first post in Motors, so if I leave something out, tell me and I'll go get the info. It's a 1958 Ford Fairlane 500 Skyliner retractable hardtop. 352 interceptor engine. V8 4 bbl Automatic transmission. Umm.. it's been sitting in our garage for about 6-7 years collecting dust, and possibly allowing rats to chew on wires, which is where the problem starts. My friend and I decided it would be a good project to try and get this thing running again since it's quite a beast of a car. We cleaned out the air filter, bought fresh oil, changed the oil and oil filter, added some fresh gas, changed all the spark plugs, put some MMO in there and everything that should be required to get it back to running condition. Then, we turned to the battery. After attaching the charger to it, it would start charging at 2 or 10 amps fine, but then it would switch over to 50 all by itself, and then switch back to the original power. It did this with each charger we tried. Then, we unattached the battery from the car and tried charging it. This worked fine and the battery held a charge. But then, upon attaching the battery to the car once again, you could hear the battery boiling within as soon as both connecters touched the battery. And to boot, if you tried to attach a charger to it, it would cause lots of sparking even when done correctly. So now, I turn to you. Could it be something in the electrical system that the rats chewed through which causes a short of some kind? We know the engine's not dead because once we actually got the engine to turn a bit, but now when you turn the key, nothing happens. Any ideas would be helpful, and sorry if I rambled a lot. -Clark __________________ Do not speak Latin in front of the books.