Cars'n'Guitars

Okay my car has no electrical power at all, I thought at first the battery was shot but it tested fine. What are some things I should check? The car has no power at all even in the passenger compartment, every key position does nothing and engages nothing power wise. There are no dash lights, no headlights, no taillights, and no turn signals. Some please lead me in the right direction.

t-top havoc

iTrader: (3)

Battery cable(s) old & broken
Battery terminals need cleaned

Ignition switch been taken out // replaced?

Cars'n'Guitars

Battery cables and terminals are good, by ignition switch do you mean the key ignition in the steering column?

t-top havoc

iTrader: (3)

Yes the part in the steering column

bygddy

Doesn't matter, should still have lights. I would look real hard at the battery terminals, and the ground off the battery.

Cars'n'Guitars

I did I cleaned the battery terminals and the cables, the ground runs the alternator bracket and everything is tight with no rips or tears in the cables.

t-top havoc

iTrader: (3)

Thanks! I learned something! :-)
Was wondering if it were possible something had not been plugged back in if there was a new switch put in.?.

Cars'n'Guitars

There were no new switches put in.

bygddy

Cleaned how? I chased this a few weeks ago on something, battery had been disconnected for a couple weeks, cleaned all the sht off them and reinstalled, no power anywhere. Chased my tail cause I was positive it was clean and tight....finally went back, and tightened more, was actually concerned about breaking the positive lol. But it fixed it, if not the case, follow the positive lead to the starter and look for something loose there.

Cars'n'Guitars

Cleaned with a dremel until the metal was shiny and bare, the starter wires are tight because I put those on today. Can you get a picture of your starter wires and battery cable set-up with the grounds?

bygddy

Watching walking dead with the fam, will go out and see how acsesible it is after.
Dave

Cars'n'Guitars

Thanks man I really appreciate any pictures and help you can give.

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

Fusible link at the starter

There are about 2 or 3 wires that hook THE REST OF THE CAR to the battery, using the big terminal of the starter as the junction post. Each of those wires has a fusible link in it to protect the wire. A FL is a piece of smaller gauge wire (usually 3 - 4 ga smaller than the wire it protects) with some sort of hi-temp insulation, that is supposed to burn up in case of a short in the protected wire. That system is MUCH more reliable than a "fuse" such as would plug into a fuse block or something, at that power level.

One of those has burned up in your car.

Unhook all the wires from that starter terminal, after of course, disconnecting the — batt terminal from the batt itself; inspect carefully, including pulling on them to see which one stretches; shouldn't be too hard to find the culprit.

Cars'n'Guitars

I looked before I put the wiring on the starter and it didn't seem bad, tomorrow I'm gonna grab another battery and try that, if that doesn't work I'll look again and grab some pictures of my wiring.

Cars'n'Guitars

Okay the no power problem has been resolved, now I am having distributor problems. What are all the wires that need to be going into the distributor?

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

So, what was the problem?

All the wiring the dist needs, is power, and maybe tach. Then of course if it's computer-controlled, the connection from the module to the computer.

Jk_Under

My car did this, heres a few things to try:
1. Theres the connector where all the engine harness wires go into your firewall (big black plug, drivers side, righs under the windshield). When my car did that, i wiggled that plug and everything came on.

2. My friends camaro did this too, his wires at the starter were messed up, and a fusible link was blown, check that.

3. Check ALL of your fuses in your fuce box, start with the ACC fuse, and headlight, all the lamp fuses pretty much. I've seen cases where multiple fuses go out.

Good luck, keep us posted.

Jk_Under

lol I see i posted late, im sorry.

Cars'n'Guitars

It's fine I'm sure it may help others but thanks anyways.
The problem was there was a wiring attached to the starter that was not supposed to be there. What do all the wires look like that need to be connected to the distributor. I'm pretty positive I have everything that needs to be connected but I could be missing something too.

Jk_Under

Be sure the plug wires are correct, not touching other metal or

Cars'n'Guitars

Already did that multiple times.