Electrical System Went Completely Dead

Driving along yesterday evening in my 74 (304, Howell TBI) with heater on, and pulled headlight switch on. Everything went dead. No power to anything. Cleaned battery posts and cables. Tried to jump off another battery. Nothing. Any suggestions appreciated.

 

Alien Abduction? Jeez man.. That's odd.. I guess I'd get out the meter and start tracing the obvious stuff.. Continuity of ground wire, hot wire to solenoid etc...

 

"No power to anything."

Gotta be close to the source. Check your battery connections, including both ends and the ground. Then the solenoid/starter terminals, where the feed splits off to the rest of the vehicle.

 

If everything went dead when you added draw then you probably burnt something. Fuse would be first guess but I am thinking you probably went there already. Is there a main fuse or breaker ? Look for burnt wire, shorted out hot lead to ground. I would look at the back of the headlight switch since that is what killed it.

Most likely you will have to get a multi meter or even a simple test light and start at the battery and work your way through.

Check your grounds to be sure, but that probably didn't change when you pulled on the lights.


Troy Cantrell
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Build thread - '66 CJ 6:
http://www.jeep-cj.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15075

 

When you did the jump, did the starter turn the engine over?

 

If you did not get any starter rotation then you likely burned the fusible link wire in two. It will be off the positive battery cable connection possibly where it joins at the starter solenoid. The two wires that are fusible are labeled 12A and 12D and are RED 14Ga. Depending on all your acc's, you may need to go a gauge lower with the links. Maybe a 12 or 10 gauge.

 

Good call Walt. Had that happen on a Gran Torino when I was a teen. The shop found it 'cause I was totally lost.

 

Had something similar with mine, do you have a ammeter, mine died and whenever i turned the lights on the Jeep would die as well as the battery was not charging. I shorted the 2 posts on the ammeter and all was ok again, could be just the way things were wired up on mine. I plan on re wiring it and taking the ammeter out and just go with a volt meter