Hi guys, im new to this forum. The guys at corvetteforum.com told me about this site (corvettes are my real love).

Anyway... my 90 firebird is having some electrical problems. The car will start and drive fine but most of my lights dont work (headlights, taillight, dome light, hatch motor). I checked all the fuses but they are fine. I was thinking it was a fusable link somewhere but I dont know where. The only thing that changed to my car recently was the right headlight moter stopped working. I disconnected power to it thinking maybe that might help but it diddnt.

Thanks for your help.
Chris

 

Welcome to the boards!

Were these problems present before you worked on the headlight motor? Where did you disconnect power at?

Matt

 

The headlight motor went out and everything else worked fine for a couple of weeks. I hand cranked the motor up when I needed the headlights and all was well. That lasted about 2 weeks and then the other problems started. This is when I unplugged the motor (2 wire connector comming out of motor) to see if had any effect on anything but it diddnt, so I plugged it back in.

 

i know on the camaros there is a ground for the headlights....maybe on the bird its the same thign and the groudn is screwing it all up if it got disconnected just a thought...i dont know bird headlights

 

I don't think plugging and unplugging the motor did anything. Unpluggng it wouldn't solve a broken headlight motor problem anyway. That's a different topic though.
Use a voltmeter to check for power at all the connections. The links are possible. Too much current or too much heat would cause them to blow. They are USUALLY located around the starter. Could be in different places though.

 

Thats what I was thinking but as far as I can tell it properly grounded.

 

I figured there were some links on the starter, but with one of those blown would the car start? Like I said before, the car starts and runs just fine.

I once had a rustang that had some electrical problems similar to this and I had to replace the soliniod (SP?). From what I understand, GM cars dont have a separate soliniod, its connected to the starter or something. Is this true?

 

your right on that...ford liked to seperate things...starter and soloneid...altanator and regulator.....speed and good looks...oh wait ill stop now

 

So do you think a starter/soloneid replacement could be a solution? Other thoughts?

 

i would just check all connections and grounds....including all bulbs..then think about solonoid

 

From what i know there is about 4 or 5 fusible links. One goes to the starter, one is for the alternator. The other 2 or 3 are near the bulkhead connector and junction block. This is according to chiltons. I've never bothered looking for them when they went on me. I just bypassed them and hooked up the circuit directly to the battery.

Matt

 

Thats the info I needed. Now before you ask, Yes, I do have a Chiltons (should be standard equipment). The problem is I just bought a house and its in a box somewhere. If you can, could you scan the diagram and post it so I can find and identify these links. If not thats ok, I will just go and buy another Chiltons rather than dig through endless boxes for something I probably wont find.

Thanks,
Chris

 

if vader reads this im sure he will post the diagram of the links or system somewhere..that guy has everything....