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Post by guinness56 on May 27, 2012 22:24:40 GMT -5
This manifold / carb project is humbling.
After hooking the electric choke into the fuse box, and reconnecting the battery, I was surprised when the positive and negative cables from alternator (which I forgot to attach) arched as they were touching.
I mention this, because now I cant get the car to power up. Not even a click from the starter. Simply dead. I tried the battery from my other vehicle and still nothing.
All of the fuses are good. Connections to the battery are clean and tight. Ground on the frame is good. Alternator is hooked back up.
Any thoughts on where to investigate next?
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Post by real57vetteguy on May 27, 2012 22:35:40 GMT -5
unfortunatly I just sold the factory harness I had laying around or I could help you trace it, there probably is a fuseble link some where, basically tracing wires from the battery, snoid, to the switch and fusebox, would be the best answer you more than likely popped something, im not sure if factory olds is the same as mainline GM, but if so check red and purple starter/snoid wired for inline fuses,
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Post by real57vetteguy on May 27, 2012 22:54:22 GMT -5
I tried to look it up but cant find anything, normally on GM wiring there is a fuseable link on the red solenoid wire, if neg/pos touched more then likely you fried that which would result in no power at all
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Post by oldsproject on May 29, 2012 17:02:14 GMT -5
I just had this happen over the weekend in my boat so know the pain. Blew the 90 amp fuse link that was at the starter. Chased every possible fuse in every possible crappy angle for 4 hours. Picked up the book, read the three things to check and found it in 10 minutes..... I suspect you have the same problem but have no idea where it is.
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Post by ricks65cutlass on May 30, 2012 12:43:37 GMT -5
I may not know what I am talking about here as I removed mine a while back, but isnt there a large fuse at the junction on the inner fender where the positive battery cable connects ? I will have to crack my manual open when I get home, and also take a look at the junction, but I could swear that there is a fuse there.
Eh, upon quick Google, it looks like that is the Horn Relay that hangs off of the junction.....Sorry. The only thing I can think is to start chasing it backwards to see if you are getting power from the battery at the junction, and move backwards.
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Post by rickman on May 31, 2012 17:53:51 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on May 31, 2012 19:00:21 GMT -5
This manifold / carb project is humbling. After hooking the electric choke into the fuse box, and reconnecting the battery, I was surprised when the positive and negative cables from alternator (which I forgot to attach) arched as they were touching. I mention this, because now I cant get the car to power up. Not even a click from the starter. Simply dead. I tried the battery from my other vehicle and still nothing. All of the fuses are good. Connections to the battery are clean and tight. Ground on the frame is good. Alternator is hooked back up. Any thoughts on where to investigate next? I PM`d you. |
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Post by guinness56 on May 31, 2012 19:32:48 GMT -5
I pulled apart the wiring heading back to the firewall. As mentioned, there was a link between the positive battery line and the power heading back into the vehicle (photo). I changed the butt connection and...let there be light! Cool feeling when its 1:30 am, you're exhausted from pouring over the issue and you open the door to try the key and the dome light comes on. At that point, I shut the door and went to bed happy. Didnt want to try firing the engine for fear some hose or poorly sealed portion of the intake would start leaking and send me down another bad path. Only question would be this - if all I changed was a butt connection, what was it that really blew? Shouldn't there have been a fuse of some sort? Thanks a ton for the help! I'll send before and afters of the engine work once its complete...and running.  |
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Post by Deleted on May 31, 2012 20:12:19 GMT -5
Glad it worked out. If you look at the red wire coming out of the left(driver side) bulkhead connector, you`ll usually find a white square or rectangle stenciled on the wire. This denotes a fusible link. The link runs from the stencil(approximately) to the origin of source. in other words it`s a fuse and it will normally fail at(or very close)to the power source. In this case, since it appears you jumped your relay lug, your source is the butt connector. Make sense? This link runs your interior lights, ignition switch power, brake lights, and I`m pretty sure powers up your headlight switch.
One suggestion, expose the entire wire to the bulkhead connector, inspect for any bubbling , or dark spots, on the vinyl covering. If any, replace link, or replace with I think #10wire with a breaker in line.
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Post by guinness56 on May 31, 2012 20:17:13 GMT -5
Makes sense...and even more so when its working.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2012 12:07:32 GMT -5
I apologize in advance for bending ears that don`t care to be bent. I was in the garage, cleaning the mess I made dismembering the 4dr. When, while putting the wiring harnesses in boxes, it dawned on me."guinness56" posted 2 legitimate questions, the origial post described the event ("batt" wire to "Alt" grounded out), and the result, (no crank, no interior lights) He later asked the reason for the failure of the link. In hindsight, neither of his questions were addressed correctly. The no crank, no interior lights was pretty straight forward since the only power to the ignition switch is thru the link. But the grounding of the "Batt" wire to "ALT" could not have been the event that caused this link to fail. It would be far more reasonable to believe that while sitting in the garage his car got hit by lightning! Without boring the life out of everybody, the chain of events that would have to take place for a back feed of this nature to have happened is astronomical ! It appears the wire alterations were confined to the elimination of the lug connector on the horn relay, the lug was simply replaced with butt connectors. The butt connectors look like simple crimp style, not the solder/shrink type. The connector was then protected by shrink tube. Here`s my opinion. 3 things could have happened, and this is assuming, (and I have reason to believe my assumptions are correct) the original wiring routing was not disturbed, or re-routed. Most likely cause, simply a bad crimp connection at the fuse-able link. 2nd thought is, since the link is heat sensitive, it is POSSIBLE that because of the age/condition of the link, the heat generated while shrinking the tube, was too much for the link to absorb and still retain it`s integrity. The 2nd is a long shot, but I`ve done it. The 3rd. is also a heat related issue. Since the lug on the horn relay was eliminated, a heat sink of sorts was also eliminated. IF (I can`t tell by the pics) the link wire was inserted in the butt connector with a second load wire. I`m a little stumped on how you powered the link and the alt power wire separately. As I write and look over your pic, I smell a little more going on here. I took a shot of the link wire to show it`s markings, it still had the FM certification label attached    |
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Post by oldsproject on Jun 1, 2012 13:54:42 GMT -5
Only insight I can add to what Post laid out is what happened to my boat that blew the 90Amp fuse link and it wasnt lightning just plain ole stupidity. I hooked the power up backwards! Negative to positive and positive to negative. t was easy because when I put the battery into the holder (backwards) they lined up that way and therefore it had to be right..... That is different then whats described but it was enough to melt it. Thanks god for engineering and fail safe protection as it was only a 36.00 repair.
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Post by guinness56 on Jun 1, 2012 19:43:29 GMT -5
As I mentioned before, I was happy enough with power returning to the interior lights and had not yet tried to turn over the engine from my intake and carb additions. I tried my luck tonight and damn it if the power didnt go out again before the engine would turn. Mystery continues...
Sounds like I need to continue looking for the wire POST took a photo of.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2012 21:10:42 GMT -5
You don`t have to look far. The bulkhead connector (that`s the back of the fuse block where it passes thru the firewall) There are two removable plugs, the outboard plug,( closest to the fender) there are 2 vertical rows of wires (running up & down) the second wire from the top, in the row closest to the drivers fender is the link wire that runs directly to power your ignition switch.
A VERY STRONG SUGGESTION !! GET A WIRING DIAGRAM !!! you have things going on that shouldn`t be. There has to have been some wiring modifications since this last worked properly. Things like this are very difficult to remedy thru written word, at least for me. Any advise would be pure conjecture. There is a very precise isolate and test procedure of the circuits that need to be done.
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Post by rickman on Jun 1, 2012 22:26:01 GMT -5
And, just for safety, keep a fire extingisher good for electrical fires handy!!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2012 7:50:17 GMT -5
guinness56,
after you restore power to your ign. switch, let me know before you attempt cranking again. We`ll try getting thru this by written word. I would prefer the phone, but that`s up to you.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2012 7:51:39 GMT -5
And, just for safety, keep a fire extingisher good for electrical fires handy!! good advise. |
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