Me and a buddy were replacing the valve covers on my 1984 Trans AM (completely stock original parts). When taking off the one on the left side of the engine, we brushed it against a bolt on the alternator and there was a spark, and the car lost all power. No fuses in the fusebox by the drivers feet are blown. I've looked all over in the engine and I can't find any main fuse box like most cars have with the larger fuses and such- do these cars have them? or in-line fuses? or is it something where if you happen to blow something bigger like that, you're just screwed?? when it comes to electronics on older cars I know next to nothing, incredibly desperate to get this fixed because it is currently my only transportation, any help would be appreciated.

 

Normally the advice here would be to check the fusible links, but, in a properly wired 84 TA the big lug on the alternator doesn't pass it's power through any of the fusible links located on the starter. If the wiring is stock & unbutchered, I'd start by checking the positive & negative connections right at the battery itself, and then check them where they attach to the starter (positive) and the engine block (negative). Also, make sure the wire from the battery's negative terminal to the car's body is intact.

And no, there is nothing bigger that gets blown, you have fried a connection somewhere, now all ya gotta do is find it.....

 

We've all had to learn that the battery should always be disconnected when working on anything to avoid issues like yours.

I installed this on my Camaro to make disconnecting easy.

 

thanks for the reply! I totally forgot I posted this. Ended up letting it sit for a day because I had to work, came back and it fired up with just a little bit of struggle that night. Guessing that just depleted the battery almost entierly? not sure, it's strange, never heard of that happening before, but I also don't know much about electrical systems in general 🤷‍♂️ more of a bodywork and engine work guy.

 

Hi Lb.0717,

Sadly, nope, "Christian Science Healing" (You pray, and the car gets better) don't work in real life, you do have an intermittent bad connection that will surface again when a lot of current is asked of it

(or when the connection degrades further & gets worse).

Personally, I'd still be cleaning the battery terminals and the connections to the starter & the block. If the battery had enough power to start the car before the big spark, and then a day after the car having no power now it starts normally, it's not logical to assert that the spark drained the battery totally flat, which then recovered it's power on it's own.