No electricity to anything

[rwells]

My 79 fj40 started and drove fine to my local Target, but on arriving back to the car I had No power to anything. No start, no lights, no cigarette lighter, nothing. Towed it home for investigation. Battery is good 1 year old. Fusible link has power at all connections. power to starter. Power to alternator. Power to voltage regulator. But nothing to fuse box. and, obviously, will not start. Replaced voltage regulator, nothing. Can a bad alternator cause no power even if the battery is good? All help gratefully appreciated.

 

[inkpot]

Howdy! Everything except the starter runs off of a secondary source, parallel to the big wire from the positive battery post to the starter. There is either a second, smaller wire coming off the positive post, or it comes off a small post on the top of the starter. I have never looked at it on a 79. That wire has come loose, broken, or popped an inline fuse. If you live in a wet area, it can become corroded on the inside of the insulation. Water seeps in at the high end of the wire and runs down to the lowest point and pools. If the wire feels all lumpy inside, that's it. John

 

[Texx]

And that's exactly what happened to my 1980 the other day. Previous owner had twisted the wire together, along with a little tape

 

[JohnnyC]

x2 check the fuseable link

 

[Pin_Head]

If there is no power to any of the fuses, then the main power wire from the battery through the fusible link is bad. If only the "ignition on" fuses lack power, then the ignition switch is bad.

Don't confuse voltage with power. If a circuit is open (not running anything) then you may find 12V on the end of the power wire even on a bad circuit. However, when you turn the switch on, the voltage will drop to zero when there is no power because of a bad, high resistance connection upstream in the circuit. Do all voltage measurements with the switches on.

I would suspect a bad corroded connection at the fusible link. If so, the fuses for your amp meter (located near the fusible link) will be blown to protect the meter.

 

[rwells]

Problem solved

turns out a connector with power to the fuse panel had arced and fried. The connector is located behind the air conditioner. Thanks for the input.