Hi, anyone had a problem with electrical shorts? I've changed fuses, contacts looked fine, but it's always acted a little funny with things like the interior or dashboard lights flickering, radar detector having intermittant failure, a jiggle under the dash and some things come on...and most recently, tried to start her up and all I get is a click coming from somewhere in the engine compartment.
It's either a bad ground, a bad solenoid, a bad battery, or a blown connector...but if anyone else had had these issues, what did you do first?

First try changing the ground strap on the drivers side from the engine to the frame. Also follow the negative cable from the battery to the frame. They usually get corroded there. Unbolt it and clean it with some sandpaper(both cable and mounting point).

Also take a picture of the fuses for reference, remove all fuses and clean with steel wool. Mine looked clean but after I cleaned it a lot seemed to work again.

One thing that I found to be common is that the wires push out of the back of the relay plate. There are 4 screws that hold the plate on. If you remove the plate gently push on all the wires. You will find that a couple are probably loose.

This is just a suggested starting point. When wiring is involved it is a process of elimination.

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1986 Jalpa Twin Turbo

Thanks very much!
I was afraid that the click was the sound of a siezed engine or something *lol*
I will try all this and hopefully it works...It's just not as fun to sit in the car when it's not moving *lol*
If you think of anything else let me know.
BTW how likely is it that it's a solenoid problem?
Because that was suggested to me to but I don't want to deal with that at the moment...

Can you take a picture of the wires going to the Solenoid? Mine was acting up. I checked the wire diagram and someone had the wires on wrong. Now it starts everytime.

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1986 Jalpa Twin Turbo

It may be your starter switch in the steering colum. I have tried to fix this 3 times and it seems to be common issue. I had the ignition rebuilt twice. Power goes in and nothing comes out. On both rebuilds the internals where cooked. The rebuilder said the contacts are very small. When I have starter problems, I hear the click as well. I think it is the L-valve located between the distributor and the AC pump. Nothing to be concerned about.

When my ignition switch started acting up the engine would turn off, or I would lose power to the dash. The electrical system gets really flakey (like some one is flicking the switch off and on).

Detour Racing has great tips. I would start there. If it seems to be your starter switch CONTACT ME! If you know how, it is easy to get out. I had my whole dash and steering colum removed the first time to get it out. Now that I understand it, it takes 2 minutes. Once out it is easy to check it with a meter.

Jalpa's and electrical issues go hand in hand. i owned an 85 Jalpa, so let me know if i can be of help.

Thanks for all the tips.
I will try to get a pic of the wires later to post here.
I'll look into the ignition issue too...
I'll be back with whatever I find.
:-)