No Power at all!

Dear Merv,

This morning I checked continuity of the ignition switch and it was good.

Checked continuity of the ground at the fuse box and it was okay.

Hotwired the starter and it was okay (did not jump the ignition).

Checked for open wire (continuity) on the hot wire leading to fuse box and it was okay. (There is no power getting to the fuse box.)

Did notice that the regulator fuse was blown and wonder if I blew the new regulator and if that would cause no electric power to fuse box.

If no one has anymore suggestions, I'll take the alternator in for testing but wouldn't the lights work if the alternator was bad and power to the fuse box? There was only about 8 volts on the hot wire going to the alternator but the battery tests 12 volts and spun the starter.

--Carol.

The problem was the wire from the main fuse to the fuse box and the alternator tested bad. Have no idea what went bad on the wire. There are no signs of melting, bad connection or corrsion. So I'm going to bypass the wire with a new one.

Was wrong below: there WAS power getting to the fuse box but it was only about 8 volts, maybe less.

--Carol.

Is it a fuse link wire maybe?

They can blow and still 'look' ok. They can almost totally blow and allow a trickle voltage through just from the blown ends touching each other a bit, but no amps will pass.

If so, don't put a regular wire in or if you do put a fuse inline with it.

The alternator should have a fuse link wire for sure.

Putting a regular wire for a bypass causes fires.

Mike

Carol Dearborn wrote:

The fuse link wires are usually at the end of one or both of the positive battery cables. The battery cable goes to a bolt, say on the starter and/or on a power distribution block and off the same bolt comes the fuse links.

They are about 8" long and have a solid looking rubber tube on the harness side with a loop connector to the bolt.

As far as I know 'all' modern cars have them to protect parts of the wiring harness that are not fused like the alternator and headlights.

Mike

Carol Dearborn wrote:

Dear Mike:

I think you're talking about the wire that leads from the main, 45amp fuse. That was the problem. I bypassed the hot wire to the fuse box. No idea why it failed or where but the alternator was blown and I had a 12 gauge wire jumping the 45 fuse but there are no signs of the wires melting. (I took some of the strands of wire from the jumper so now it is more like a 14 gauge wire.)

Thanks, it runs now and the voltmeter is steady at 14 volts.

--Carol.