Just bought an 82 trans am, the car developed a very weird electrical issue- the headlights, running lights, tail lights, brake lights, interior lights, and aftermarket radio do not work. It has been 350 swapped, but all the stock wiring for the lights and fusebox seems to be in place. I have been looking at wiring diagrams and think mabye it is a headlight relay? I have little do no experience with electrical diagnosis

 

Most likely the fusable link leading from the big wire on the starter to the wiring harness , the one that feeds the lights , has gone open circuit . Where there is an aftermarket radio (read = possible wire butchery) in there I'd be making sure all looks good with the radio wiring (all connections properly insulated) before repairing the fusable link (if that is in fact what's bad) so that any possible radio wiring shorts don't take out your new fusable link . Ditto really for giving ALL the wiring a good looking at , what your mostly looking for is areas where folks have been at it with the wirecutters , those are your prime suspect spots for finding wiring snafus . Check the wiring going to the rear lights where it runs under the compartment in the left rear fender . Once the paper box that is the compartment deteriorates away folks put all kinds of stuff in there , right on those wires , and they can get shorted really easily there .

 

Hey thanks! I wasn't sure where to even start, I will learn how to check the fusable link and inspect wiring. Would the headlight motors/actuators not working have anything to do with it? They had never worked, but everything else still did.

 

here is the wiring diagram for your lights . You will see that there is a red fusable link feeding most of the circuit as well a a couple of fuses feeding some things as well . Thing is , fuses and fusable links don't usually go open on their own ( It CAN happen that an old one just up and fails without having been subjected to overload but that's darned rare indeed) and so a good check of the wires , especially near any aftermarket work , is always good before replacing any failed fuse or fusable link .

Now as to the headlight doors ; your's , being an 82 , uses the older 3 relay system rather than the later electronic module based system . Any and all of those three relays you see in the diagram as well as the switches and the motors themselves could be suspect and proper electrical troubleshooting will find the problem area(s) quickly .

My best suggestion to you would be to be reading ALL you can about basic electric theory and automotive electric troubleshooting if you are to have success repairing these faults . When major systems are totally dead the reason(s) are always "punch in the face obvious" and not subtle , easily missed things like a slightly poor connection , so this should be fairly easy once you get familiar with a voltmeter and the diagram I've provided .

PS , click twice on the picture to see it in detail .

 

FIXED! I found some suspicious electrical tape; a hot wire was touching a metal wire loom on the right right side of the firewall; not sure what it's for but I cut the excess and taped it up. As for the fuseable links, I spliced in some 14 gauge wire to test it out with, and everything works. Thanks all for the help. I am in the process of testing the relays for the motors