Hi:

I recently purchased a 1985 Pontiac Trans Am (305 4BBL). The starter went out on it yesterday. Had power to everything in the car, but the starter wouldn't turn over at all. I went and bought a new starter, bolted it in and now I have no power to anything in my car. Yes, I disconnected the battery before I even climbed underneath it. Gets worse though. When I got the new starter on and nothing worked, I "bumped" the old starter with a set of jumper cables and my battery, and it worked. I checked the line running from the battery to my starter and it reads 12.81 volts. Same thing with the wire running from the starter to the voltage regulator (alternator), same result 12.81 volts.

Does anyone have any idea what else I could check? I'm guessing some type of main fuse or fuse link wire somewhere but I'm not sure. And if that were the case why did my radio and everything work yesterday and today there is nothing. The store was closed so I couldn't get a starter last night I had to wait until today. The battery has been disconnected all night. So I'm wondering why the starter stopped working in the first place and why did everything else stop working when the battery wasn't even connected? The wiring has been messed with a lot by the previous owner. I've been chasing down an open circuit for almost a month that keeps draining my battery, could this be related?

Any ideas / comments / suggestions would be helpful. Thanks a lot guys.