I was setting the timing on my car, and I forgot to plug the power wire back into the distributor, and left it touching the valve cover. When I went to turn the car on it made a sparking noise by the starter, then smoke came out from the starter. After that half of my electrical system wouldnt work(starter, rear hatch, radio, gauges, windows, door locks) My friend said I might have blown a fusible link, by the starter. I had no idea what that was, so I got under the car and pushed up on all the wires to the starter. Once I did that everything worked again. I had my fuel pump wired into a wire, and now that wire no longer has power to it. The alarm that goes off when you leave your lights now goes off whenever the lights are on, even when the car is running. My initial timing isnt set so when the rpms start to jump around and the engine misses the radio will die out then turn right back on. The gauge fuse blew out. What the heck happend? How do I fix this?

 

So is everyone else as lost as me?

 

/shrug good luck

 

I had a similar problem with my 81 cutlass although i didnt actually ever short anything while working on it. It lost all power one day to the dash, locks, radio, interior lights,starter everything. it ended up being a shorted wire that ran from the positive terminal on the battery to the starter. this wire then in turn supplies power to the whole car. This wire being the main positive wire for the whole car may have become shorted when the you grounded the wire from the distributer when you moved it it made a conection but not a good enough one. Just a thought hope its helpfull.