Hey everyone, I made a rookie mistake. Forgot to unhook my battery while working on the car, and accidentally shorted the alternator positive wire against the case. Only for a split second, and the car actually started and drove for a bit after that (albeit the tach needle kept jumping around, which I thought was a grounding issue). The next day, went down to drive the car and....Nothing. No electrical power at all. No interior lights, gauges, anything. I figured it was the fusible links by the starter, and sure enough they were all crispy and stretchy, so I replaced them. But still no power.

So my question to you, other than the fusible links by the starter, what else may have burned up that I should check to find why I have no power? And what is the best way to trace power from the battery to the dead area? I know the battery goes to the starter first, and I have 12V there, but where do I test next?

Thanks!

 

There is another link by the horn relay, that's the one that killed my car years ago cause of a dead short in the upper dash....

 

Is the horn relay near the front drivers side of the car? A little in front of the alternator? If so, I replaced that one as well, no go

 

Ok so another thought (and I'll test this when I get home). Is it possible it shorted something out in the alternator enough that I get ZERO voltage to the rest of the car? I'm a bit of a novice with electrical, but I was figuring I can test this by putting my old alternator back in and seeing if I get power to the car.

Still hoping there is a fusible link I missed somewhere that is burned up, because this alternator is 1 month old...

 

Mu 75 has a fusible link near the bulkhead connector under the master cylinder, not sure if yours does also.

 

Ask this member for a wiring diagram for your car and it makes it easy to trace the power
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...or-anyone.html

 

Think there is a fusible link middle of firewall between wiper motor and middle of wipers. Goes to the ammeter . Check if you are getting 12 volts at Horn relay 12 volt buss. (red wires). Also check you don't have a blown fuse in box

 

I believe there are two fusible links. The one at the starter and the one at the horn relay on the driver's side fenderwall. Search for a post by Alan. He provided a picture of the horn relay. A simple test to isolate the link in question is to try the horn. The power for the horn comes off between the first and the second link. If the horn works, the link at the starter is good. The alternator comes in between the two links also. You could not fry the second link by shorting the alternator. The alternator is in parallel with that link.

 

Well I figured it out....and I feel dumb. I decided I was just going to start tracing the power from the battery to wherever it stopped to figure out where my break was. I knew I had 0 voltage at the alternator, but 12v at the Starter, so it was somewhere in between there. I didn't have to go very far before realizing I'm an idiot. I was inspecting the notorious white 6 pin connection that is up by the passenger head (where the red 12v wires go after the starter). I was pulling apart the connector (and lightly pulling on each wire to make sure everything was attached and there wasnt a break somewhere) when I saw my interior light come on for a second. Weird. So I found the same wire and pulled up a little again. Sure enough, light came on. I switched off the battery cutoff switch (wasn't going to make that mistake again!) and got back under the car to trace that wire. Sure enough it runs right into the fusible link I had just installed. Everything LOOKS fine, so I disconnected it from the starter for some testing. Guess what? If you run 12v to one end of the wire, it wasn't getting 12v at the other end. Somehow when I crimped and soldered the fusible link to the ring terminal, there was a gap and it was just enough that the copper wire wasn't making a good connection, except when I pulled up on that wire. I've never had that happen before, and I can only imagine it was because I was crimping and soldering in a really small space under the car and couldn't see super well.

Changed the ring terminal and made sure it was done right and.....voila! Power to car!

Thanks for the help

 

I once read a article in super chevy about a guy working on his brakes, while tightening the caliper the wrech slipped and he bashed his head on the rotor, then jerked back in pain to rattle some more inside the wheel well. he said most embarrassing part was his 12 year old kid watched him do that. the editor added that we have all bashed our skulls inside the wheel well, the trick to it is to not have any witnesses.
so ya most of us have been there at least twice, wanted to say thanks for posting the solution, so many peeps ignore the forumns once there problem is solved.

 

Ha! Well I can definitely vouch for doing some dumb and embarassing things on the car that I"m glad no one saw. Hopefully my dumb moment will help someone else in the future!

 

So on this same note, I noticed that the notorious white 6 pin connection up near the passenger head (the one that the 12v wires from the starter run to) is partially melted and pretty beat up. It was really hard to separate and some of the wires are fraying, so I want to replace it. I don't care if it's the original connector, but I don't really want to have 6 terminal crimp connectors showing right there on top of the motor, I'd much rather it just be one plug or something so it is easier to look at.

Is there somewhere I can purchase a plug style connector that I could wire in for the 6 wires? Basically just looking for a cleaner way to replace that connector than just with a bunch of those crimp connect pieces.

Or would something like this work?

 

The terminal strip you picture will work- just make sure it will handle the current. Agree there should not be much, but I'd go with a minimum of 60amp.