Hey All, I have a 87 Camaro LT 305 carb 5 speed. When I was enjoying a cruise today my car died at red light. No crank, click, radio, windows, binging when the door is open but I do have headlights. Pretty much no power anywhere. I replaced a dead fusible link thinking that surely would be the problem but still having the same issue. I grabbed my volt meter and I have power at the starter. Started to trace the red and orange wires from the starter but they seem to go into the cabin. Any suggestion on where it might go? Or what I should try next?

 

Almost certain to be a fusible link.

There are 2 of them. Each one supplies power to about half the car. There are 2 Big Red Wires that carry 12V from the battery cable post on the starter, into the cabin, to the ign sw, HL sw, brake lights, interior lights, etc. etc. etc. ... in a word, all of the things that get fed constant battery. Each Big Red Wire has a fusible link protecting it. When one blows, this is exactly what happens.

You can check at C100 (big connector through the firewall below the brake booster) and find the 2 wires in question, and measure the voltage on them. Instinct tells me however that it will be a waste of time; you'll find exactly what I just described, namely 1 that has power and 1 that doesn't; and the reason that the 1 doesn't, will be because its FL has opened.

 

+1 !!!

 

I agree. I feel a little silly. Found another fuse hiding.

any suggestions on how to replace these? I used a inline fuse holder for the first one but just curious what others may be doing.

 

That is arguably THE WORST thing you can do.

Unless of course, you just enjoy intermittents, bad connections, frequent failures, being randomly left stranded, and so forth.

The rest of us (well, the rest of us that know what we're doing and understand electricity anyway) replace them with new fusible links, installed with rosin-core solder and heat-shrink tubing.