My 1986 Corvette the other day manifested several electrical problems at once. The radio would not come on, and the aerial would not extend; the interior lights won't work; the climate buttons won't work, seemingly without their functions working, either. Interior/exterior temp also will not show.

It seems a day before this, my coolant temp/voltage and average lights did not work, though you could barely make out their measurements. The light returned upon next startup; this may be unrelated to my persistent problem.

Any ideas? Thank you.

 

I don't have the FSM with me, but from the sound of your issue after checking the fuses I'd suspect you've blown a fusible link.

Have not had one go bad in the 86 but here's what I'd do if it was mine. You're going to have to pull the battery and tray below it. You'll find a post there with a number of electrical connections coming off it. Take them off the post as you're going to be testing them one at a time. There's a large lump in the them a couple of inches from the electrical connector, that's the fusible link. If there's no obvious distortion or damage to one of them, carefully take a needle and puncture the insulation on the side opposite the fusible link. Take an ohm meter and see if you have a circuit between the electrical connector and the needle, if you do it should be good. If you don't then either you didn't hit the wire with the needle or the fusible link is bad. Can't swear to it, but I think there was an identifier on the fusible link indicating it's amperage (or check the FSM for requirements listed). If you find a bad one, you can get fusible link wiring from most autoparts places, cut out the bad and splice in new.

Pretty much it. That's what I've done before and had the vehicle for at least 10 yrs post repair and did not have a problem otherwise with it.

 

Oh yay - battery removal.

Thank you very much for the thorough, informative post.

 

Was just about to mention - all this seemed tied to my dashcam's plug falling apart in the lighter. Danged. So - it's a fuse... or I fried what the nice gentleman from Minneapolis said I fried?

 

Check your fuses first which is why I said after checking your fuses in my original statement. With luck you cooked the fuse in the fuse panel only. Then again you could have taken out the fusible link.

Start with the simplest and go from there.

get that dash cam plug out of there and pray for the best.

 

Good advice here.

If battery removal is required suggest removing the battery tray & service the ground wire connections @ the frame.

 

Just blew the fuse for the cigarette lighter in my '90. The number 1 fuse in the upper left corner of the fuse box at the end of the driver side dash was blown. 15 amps. also took out interior lights and the antenna but left the radio working.

 

You may have taken out more than one fuse. I have blown the fuse that controls the HVAC (c68) it's a 10amp fuse on the front side of the fuse box. When that is blown and I turn on the headlights, my courtesy chime stays on. But that does not seem to effect my radio.