I would look at the battery connection. Many times a poor connection at
the battery will allow small current draws but will go "open" when a large
draw, such as the starter, is applied. My guess is that the shop
disconnected the battery when working on the car then did a poor job
reattaching the battery. Clean the terminals and you should be OK.
If not, start chasing stuff with a test light until you find where your
electrons lose their motivation.
I don't know if this has happened to others, but it seems that a system
failure often occurs in close time proximity to another unrelated but
possibly causal event. (confused? I know I am) For instance, I was once
fixing a clothes dryer for my father and, upon first trying to use it, the
power in the house went out. Further investigation showed that power to
the entire city block was out! I was afraid that the power company would
figure out that I had caused the problem and ask me to ante up! When the
line crew arrived, I casually sauntered up to them and asked if they knew
what caused the problem. It seems that a squirrel had chosen the exact
moment of my testing the clothes dryer to attempt his first and last
experiment in electrophysiology and left, to bear witness, his charred
remains. After the power was restored, the dryer worked fine.
In other words, don't let the fact that you did other work limit your
troubleshooting. The two issues could easily be completely unrelated.
Regards,
Bill Eastman
61 MGA
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