Bobby Shaw

I bought my third generation 1984 Camaro Z28 May 10. A week after buying it, my camaro stalled driving 70 mph down I5 South. I was able to safely come to a stop on the side of the highway and get it towed home. Since then, I have been trying to figure out why it stalled. The day that it stalled, I got no power when I turn the key to the on position. I had lights, but that went away after buying and installing a new battery. Even after installing a new battery, I get no power. I took out the starter and alternator and had them tested at Auto Zone. Starter was fine and I have replaced the alternator. I have also replaced the ignition control module, Ignition Spark Relay, Fuel Relays, and the ignition switch on the steering column. I am at a lost on why I still have no power when I turn the key to the on position. Does anyone else have any idea on what I could do to help isolate the issue or something I need to replace to get power when I turn my key to the on position. I get nothing when I do. No sound, no cranking, no lights, no radio. My car has 38k miles on it and all original parts, except that of general upkeeps. Please help....

OrangeBird

iTrader: (1)

First and foremost, no more new parts should be installed until proper troubleshooting determines the actual problem.

From your description my strong suspicion is that you've had a short circuit that caused a fusible link to go open, possibly coupled with some bad battery terminals that lost their connection when you replaced the battery (Your description of the lights working till you installed the new battery is what leads me to believe the battery wires or their terminals are suspect) . If you do a search here on fusible links you should find a troubleshooting procedure for them, and finding and repairing why all power was lost with the new battery install (meaning the battery wires/terminals are now suspect #1 in the no power problem) should be step #1 before diagnosing the fusible links.

Nice car, BTW ...

OrangeBird

iTrader: (1)

PS , "Ignition Spark Relay" ???? There is no such relay in your car, so I'm left wondering which relay actually was replaced

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

Yup, almost certainly a fusible link.

There are 2 Big Red Wires that connect the entire car to the battery. Each of those provides power to about half of the car. Think of them as being like the main circuit breakers in your house: imagine that you have 2 breaker boxes instead of just 1, and the house electrical load was roughly equally distributed between the 2. Let's say, 1 feeds the bedroom lights, the water heater, the kitchen receptacles, and the range; the other feeds the bedroom receptacles, the oven, the washing machine, and the refrigerator. What would happen to your house if the main breaker in JUST ONE of those 2 boxes tripped? That's EXACTLY where you are now. The ignition switch has 2 sections; each section gets power from one of those; the ignition itself and the starter feed are in one section, the HVAC or radio or other things may be in the other. The lights (head, tail, brake, & turn signals) are fed by one of them, the power windows, power seats, etc. etc. are all distributed between them as well. When one of them blows, ALL of the things that they feed, stop working; but ALL of the things fed by the other, still work.

STOP randomly replacing parts.

Look down by the starter. You'll see a purple wire going to one huge battery cable going to a small terminal; that's the starter solenoid wire, that tells the starter to do its thing. The big fat battery cable goes to a post on the solenoid. The 2 Big Red Wires connect to that same post. Each one has a fusible link at the end of it, that acts like the main breaker in a breaker box. They look like this. Dorman - Conduct-Tite 14 Gauge Fusible Link Wire 85620: Advance Auto Parts. I'd recommend replacing both fusible links at the same time rather than futzing around with "troubleshooting". Use solder and heat shrink tubing, NOT the crimp connectors they might happen to come with.

1986BANDIT

Sofa,do you happen to know what EXACT fusible links to get to replace these? ARE THEY BOTH 14 GAUGE as you described? ive been having random power downs and think that since the header install,these fusible links are ready to be swapped out?

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

The ones in the link.

Yes they both need to be 14 gauge ("rust" color... they're color-coded, 14 ga is a sort of brownish-reddish-orange). They both protect 10 gauge Big Red Wires.

They're not "exactly" like the factory ones but they're as close as you're gonna get.

I happened to find them on Advance's site but they're available plenty of other places as well.

1986BANDIT

im in canada and we seldom seem to get the "exact correct" replacement parts or availability is limited.napa has 14 ga fusible links so ill probably just get those...ordering a $5 part from the states now costs an additional $50 duty/fees/bullcrap plus tax and currency conversion.i recently got a pair of koni yellow struts,$725 canadian to my door....that was the cheapest i could find them (over $100 cheaper than summit) and have them shipped ..you guys seriously don't know how lucky you have it....that being said,i love them

used to be ballpark 20 percent higher (usd to canadian monopoly money)depending on currency variation,now its closer to 100% with all the lovely upcharges to ship anything