90RS305

Yes, thats right, my electrical system decided to take a dump on me. Right now, I'm not 100% sure what the cause was.
Symptoms: When I was driving my car, I made a U-Turn, right after I made the turn and started getting on the gas, my RPM guage went from about 1,200rpms to burried on the right side. The thing is though, my engine didn't rev, it died. I tried to restart it while moving and even tried popping the clutch a few times but I got nothing. I finally coasted to a stop, looked under the hood, and I could find NOTHING wrong. I soon discovered what worked/didn't work:

WORKING:
Headlights/Brights
Domelight
Cig. Lighter
Horn
ALL FUSES GOOD
Battery - Fully Charged
NOT WORKING:
Ignition
Turn Signals
Hazards
Guages
Stereo
Brake Lights
Running Lights

When I have the door open my car doesn't even make noise when the key is in the ignition. I'm completely confused and need my car but don't have the $$ to take it to a shop. Anyone have any ideas on what it may be? I'd greatly apreciate ANY help...

jodylee8310@aol

First thing i would check is to make shure you didnt sling the battery around and cause it to short out, but it sounds like maybe it pulled the wires loose on your starter solenoid.Was your battery held down with a keeper so it wouldnt slide.Maybe you just need to tighten up the solenoid.

90RS305

The solenoid wouldn't be the problem. I can't see how it would cause the ENTIRE car not to work. If that was out, I would at least be able to get the dash to work and all my dummy lights to come on and be able to push start it, but that doesn't even work. I turn the key and get NOTHING, at all....

I miss my car! I think I'm going to go cry now...

Danno

The starter solenoid is also a junction for several voltage feeds to the car. The positive cable for the battery goes there, and then there a several wires with fuse links to feed the car. It's common for the nut to work loose, or for a wire to break there causing a bunch of things to lose 12 volts. It's a good starting point.

90RS305

Yeah I just found out about that in one of my other posts. Thats where I'm headed tonight, right for that solenoid. I hope thats it....pretty please be it....

IF ANYONE ELSE HAS ANY IDEAS PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!!

Red92TA

Did you have your stereo going at the time? Stupid question, but worth an answer at times. I wish I had my wire diagrams in the house with me! It sounds like you shorted out a wire somewhere, that then took out the fusable link at the starter solenoid. If you have a multi meter, use it to find out if any of the smaller wires off the solenoid are shorted to ground. But you will have to probe the wires after the fusable link. It can be a pain in the ***, and hopefully, the wire is still grounded!! Or test for resistance between the terminal and the other side of the fusible link. Oh, and for safety sake, disconect the negative battery cable while you do this!! It will save your meter if you hook it up wrong!! Good luck, and I will see if I can get ahold of my diagrams, and give you a better idea.

Trickster

Look under the car at the fusible links on the starter solenoid. You should see two of them joined together with one terminal lug. One of those two supply power to the areas that you have listed as non working.

Red92TA

Found out he already solved his problem...just never followed it up on this post. It was a fusible link that was blown due to wires that had been rubbed through when he put an open element air cleaner on.

90RS305

Holy crap this is back from the dead! This happend way back last July! Yeah, it just so happend I didn't realize there is a notch in the back of the stock air cleaner assembly to make room for the igniton coil wires. The bottom of the open element crushed them together, then after a good couple of month of driving on it the insulation rubbed off them and they grounded out on the open element. Luckily those fusible links attached to my starter solenoid did their job beautifully. So yeah, make sure if your fusible links go out you REPLACE THEM!!! I know I did

Bruce (90RS305)

mjwadams

I've wanted to install an open element air cleaner for a while, but all of these stories about fried electrics scare me. I figured, "why not use a non-drop air cleaner? It should clear the wires OK. I've go a Ram-Air hood with extra clearance so that shouldn't be a problem." However, I can't find one anywhere. Every air cleaner I have seen in an autoparts store or online is a drop cleaner. Does anyone have a part number for a non drop one?