drove the car home Friday with no problems. Sunday went to start it I have no spark,no fuel pump. Determined that one half of the fuse panel is without power. It's an 88 Firebird Formula 305 TBI. The gauges won't even activate with key on, batteries fully charged, starter turns and motor turns. Lights work, electric windows work, headlights go up and down, I just don't have any power on the ECM or fuel pump fuses it seems. I have always been able to hear the fuel pump come on and I don't now. I have checked grounds, look for loose wires, haven't found anything obviously wrong.

 

Fusible link at the starter

There are 2. Each feeds about half of the load in the car. One is blown.

 

Saw something about those in related topics. First thing to check next. Thank you.

 

Just checked all three fusible links coming off the starter solenoid. They all check good, 12.29 at the post on the solenoid and 12.29 on the other side of the fusible link. I'm open to any other suggestions.

 

 

If truly one half of his fuse panel is without power , and he has no spark , it's not likely to be the fender mounted fuse , since that fuse is for the ECM/fuel pump only . Because he says the fusible links are all good , my next suspect would be a bad pin at the C100 connector .

To the OP , when you checked the fusible links , did you have the key in the on position ? I ask this because if the key was off (no load on the link) it's possible your meter was reading a voltage passing through the link that may disappear once a load is put on it (by turning the key on) . It sometimes happens that if the link gets burnt the meter can see a no load voltage passing through the carbon of what was once the link's wire , which then goes to zero when any amount of current is asked to be drawn through it .

 

Thank you everyone for the replies and the suggestions. I took a wild Shot in the Dark and changed the starter ignition switch on top of the steering column under the dash. Fixed everything and is running like a Top Again. Took me 4 hours to get that little bugger switched out, most of the difficulty was disengaging the park neutral cable from the old switch.