no power

[jakeumfleet71]

i put a new oil dipstick in, and i kinda hit the hot side of the alternator doing it, sparks flew, now i have nothing anywhere, appears all fuses like 5 are all good under dash, do i move to fuseable links now????

 

[MechEng]

i put a new oil dipstick in, and i kinda hit the hot side of the alternator doing it, sparks flew, now i have nothing anywhere, appears all fuses like 5 are all good under dash, do i move to fuseable links now????

Do you get any power if you put a charger on the battery? That would let you know if the electrical is still good nice and quick

 

[jakeumfleet71]

i put a new oil dipstick in, and i kinda hit the hot side of the alternator doing it, sparks flew, now i have nothing anywhere, appears all fuses like 5 are all good under dash, do i move to fuseable links now????

Do you get any power if you put a charger on the battery? That would let you know if the electrical is still good nice and quick

no i didnt , but wouldnt that just tell me my batt is fried, which is a good batt. or you saying hook it up to the noid on the fender?


ill be out side tomorrow working on it so if someone wants to try and help me by texting i sure would appreciate the help, i hope i didnt fry nothing! 219-306-9862 jake! thanks everyone!

 

[caspianwendell]

I would start by checking all main connections especially the ground. start at battery and work your way out from there. if you have no power to anything it's going to be a main feed or ground

 

[MechEng]

If you have a volt meter I would just start checking the readings, start at the battery and slowly move down the chain. No power at all either means you've lost a main ground or completely killed the battery, if all your fuses are good and nothing works at all (brake lights, cabin lights, etc)

If you hook a charger to the battery, it should provide enough juice for various accessories to work (see aformentioned) if you hooked a charger up and still got zilch it means there's a physical circuit issue, most likely a bad ground, or you could have toasted the starter relay and the breaker, which would also kill all your electrical.

If you don't have a volt meter, and old bulb from a string of christmas tree lights and some wire would make a good gauge of "is voltage present" to try and see where it ends, should isolate the issue. Just don't hold it connected for too long or you'll burn the bulb out!

 

[jakeumfleet71]

would a bad voltage regulator cause no power? i hooked jumpers from batt strait to alt. and everything works, car starts. i jumped it to the main yellow wire rt after the regulator and it starts, its something right in front of me but cant pin point it.

 

[caspianwendell]

Do you have a volt meter, or test light?

 

[marks73]

DISCONNECT YOUR GROUND LEAD FROM THE BATTERY!!!!!!! All testing should be done this way before attempting to put any power back on your wiring. If you have shorted any wires to ground they will fry immeadiately and may cause a fire when power is restored. With the ground disconnected, go from the negative terminal of the battery to a good ground on the car with a DC volt meter. If it does not read zero volts, you have a problem.

 

[Don65Stang]

DISCONNECT YOUR GROUND LEAD FROM THE BATTERY!!!!!!! All testing should be done this way before attempting to put any power back on your wiring. If you have shorted any wires to ground they will fry immeadiately and may cause a fire when power is restored. With the ground disconnected, go from the negative terminal of the battery to a good ground on the car with a DC volt meter. If it does not read zero volts, you have a problem.

Excellent advice! Follow it.

And have a fire extinguisher nearby just in case.

 

[Jeff73Mach1]

fusible link on the solenoid-pinch the wire and you will usually feel a rubbery soft spot.

 

[wwhite72]

If you turn the key and the radio plays its not the fusible link.

 

[jakeumfleet71]

thanks everyone, ill try all of this, so far i have not found any bad fuseable links or bad grounds, could the voltage regulator blow up or go bad from a short and cause no power, whatever it is, it has to be rt in front of my face

 

[MechEng]

It kind of sounds to me like your starter relay is toast, but that's pure conjecture, if your battery is good (Which it sounds like it is) then I would expect to hear a "click" when you try to start the car (for me at least the relay is quite audible)

The only way I know to test the relay is with a volt meter

As Marks73 said (and I failed to state, WHOOPS!) be very careful when doing work on the electrical system, especially if you're going to try "bypassing" things, there is a high chance of fire and damage, your battery is capable of providing more than enough amperage to kill you. When in doubt, disconnect the negative terminal for safety

 

[caspianwendell]

It kind of sounds to me like your starter relay is toast, but that's pure conjecture, if your battery is good (Which it sounds like it is) then I would expect to hear a "click" when you try to start the car (for me at least the relay is quite audible)

The only way I know to test the relay is with a volt meter

As Marks73 said (and I failed to state, WHOOPS!) be very careful when doing work on the electrical system, especially if you're going to try "bypassing" things, there is a high chance of fire and damage, your battery is capable of providing more than enough amperage to kill you. When in doubt, disconnect the negative terminal for safety

And when you make a repair, or test...always use a test light between negative cable and battery post...if it lights up you have a draw, or short to ground.