Universal Ground problem?

Well, more amazing tales of how Gretchin just loves to screw up her electrical system... Needing help...

Was on my way home from Canadian Tire today (Was going to pick up tires, but they're too large to fit in my car). Was sitting at a light, and when it green, I let the clutch out and the vehicle died immediately. I don't mean stalled, all the lights were out and everything. Eventually, the lights came back on, but then I couldn't get the engine to fire for a few minutes straight (Would crank, but not quickly enough to turn over). After that, it cranked no problem and fired right up as if nothing were wrong.

I got about twenty feet before the windshield wipers starting going on as fast as they could possibly go and my speedo jumped to 140 KM/H. Now, I'm operating under the assumption these two circuits don't share the same power source (Fuse), but probably ground through the same circuit. Is it possible to have possibly shorted them to power backwards from ground side? That wouldn't have fried the fuses (As most of the current would be wasted in the actual objects) and seems to be the only thing they share in common. It should be noted, other stuff may have been going wrong, but I didn't happen to notice, I was too focused on those two things. It should also be noted, however, that the windshield wipers have a switch in the to interrupt power flow, which was seemingly bypassed by the short.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I've been wondering that myself. At the moment, it is sort've working, which is actually making it harder to diagnose. Would be nicer if it broke and stayed broken.

But yes, given my horrid history with charging systems, it would seem logical that the two are related. Perhaps a short keeps making the alternators working too hard, which cooks them?

That sounds perfectly like my own fault, as it fixed itself after I played around in that area.

OK Tristan, the first part of your message is definitely a bad connection to your battery.

Think about it, the only common denominator to all those things is your main battery cables or possibly one of the main power lines from the engine compartment to the fuse box.

I have run into this a few times in my life and it was always these cheap crimped battery cables we see everywhere these days.  They look good on the outside maybe but inside the crimp there is resistance.

Here's a trick:

Turn your headlights on and maybe even the rear defogger.  Then take a digital volt meter and measure across any of the high current connections.  So stick the pointy end of the meter leads right through the plastic wire covering as close to the connection as possible.  If you read any more than a few milivolts, you've got a problem.  If any of the connections is even a little warm, you've got a problem.

I would do the above and even if I found nothing, I would remove, clean and reconnect all the high current connections.

The Dawg