My car is a 1987 240 wagon, automatic. Just purchased from a friend a couple of months ago, has about 125K on it.

Sorry if this has been posted before by someone else; I'm pressed for time and don't have too much time to search around. Driving along happily today, and as I reached my desination (luckily) the car suddenly died. I rolled to a stop, tried restarting, nothing. It's completely dead; no lights, nothing turning over. No sign of any electrical functionality whatsoever. I checked all of the fuses, main enginefuse, etc. All OK. The fuel pump was whining since purchased and I'd planned to have it checked out, but hadn't. Looking at the alternator, the top bolt fastened to the assembly was missing, and the belt is a little slack. Pushing it up to its intended position seems to get the belt to the correct tension, but didn't have a bolt or tools onhand to correct it.

My questions at this point are:

Would the alternator's belt tension being loose cause it to be totally disfunctional like this?

Would a failed fuel pump or relay cause this?

It's as if there's no battery in the car.

I hope this is enough to go on to get me started here. (no pun intended).

Thanks in advance.

 

Sounds like the alt quit charging and the car ran off the battery, until the battery died.

 

Here's an update, for anyone interested. Removed the battery, checked it out, and discovered that it was fully charged so that ruled out the battery or alternator. I reconnected the battery, and noticed the little lead from the positive battery connection running to the little black box next to the battery. I popped the cover off and sure enough - the lead had slipped off its connection. Once I reconnected the thing it was as if nothing had happened; it started right up and of course I cheered victoriously. It's incredible how little it takes to completely disable an automobile, sometimes.

Anyway, thanks! I'm sure I'll have more questions later once I essay changing out the fuel pump and/or pump relay.

Zach