My daily driver is an 86 EA82 4x4 Wagon with a manual choke Weber, took it to the store today, started with no problem, as always. Drive to the store, parked, spent about 40 minutes in the store, and came back out to totally dead ignition. Key turn made the tach needle jump up and drift back down, but didn't get lights, sounds of any kind, or even clock. Dome light still worked. Tried to push start it twice and it wasn't interested. Buddy from the store came out and jumped me, battery terminal to battery terminal, and it fired right up. Volt gauge ran strong the whole way home, as always. Pulled in the driveway, turned it off, tried it again and instantly had no ignition response again.

 

Thoughts?

 

Electrical isn't my strong suit, and I've got limited time to fix it before my work week starts again.

Check your ground and the tightness of the battery terminal connections. They should not be loose at all. If you can move the ground or terminals by hand they need tightening.

Thank you, I ended up having to wire brush the crap out of the wires and terminals, but got connection again. Looks like a new battery is in my future as well, but its firing up for the moment.

The battery connections are always the first place to start when looking for this kind of trouble. Another place to check when this kind of thing happens is the fusible links. They can have a bad connection at times also. They are in the plastic box mounted on the coolant reservoir.