Single Click When Starting

Hi all, I'm needing some tips on electrical troubleshooting. I tried to start the jeep today ('59 CJ5, 12 volt system with autolite generator, f134 engine). It had electricity when I turned the key to on prior to starting (dash lights came on), but when I tried to start, I heard one click from the battery side of the hood and then nothing...no dash lights anymore either. I waited about 5 minutes, put the key back in, and dash lights came on again. Same thing...tried starting, one click, and everything went dead. Seems like I can wait a few minutes and something resets itself, but won't actually let me start (although it's been several hours now and I can't even get dash lights on anymore). I do have a multimeter but not really sure what I'm checking for.

Thanks in advance.

 

Don't mean to be too elementary here--but as a starting point be sure you have a well charged battery and clean and tight battery cables--both at the battery end and the other ends of the cables.

 

The battery is about 4 years old, but I recently recharged the battery, and it checks at 12 volts with the multimeter. I've tightened and cleaned the cables and terminals. I was able to crank the jeep earlier in the day, but it hasn't run continuously in several weeks (been doing some other work).

 

Carefully check your connections, especially the grounds. As mentioned above, a 4 year old battery may be at the end of its life. 12 volts doesn't mean the battery has the capacity to crank the engine. A good battery will be more like 12.5 to 12.8 (or more) volts.
I got tired of guessing if batteries were marginal or good, so I purchased a battery tester. It not only gives an accurate voltage to the 10th of a volt, it load tests as well, reading the percent of capacity remaining. Funny thing, but brand new Bosch batteries and NAPA Legends read 104% to 108% of capacity, where every other brand of new battery I tested reads in the mid to high 90%s.
-Donny

 

All of the above. Sometimes batteries die quite suddenly. Bad connections can mimic the same symptoms.

Easy test is to swap out the battery for a 'known-good' one.

Or charge it up for 24 hours, then monitor it for a day or two, see if it holds a charge. (Likely not, since you mention not driving it for several weeks before this failure.)

Also, be sure it is getting a good full charge when driving - voltage should show above 14V while running above fast idle if your generator and regulator are okay. Ammeter should read near zero at full charge if battery is good.

 

Many thanks for the advice. As several predicted, it was indeed the battery. Put a new one in and...well it didn't exactly fire right up (still have some carb issues going on) but it did at least turn over. I learned something new here about battery behavior.