Won’t start. No power at all.
 

I have a 71 Cheyenne with an HEI that will not start. Battery is good. Alternator is good. Was running fine. Turned the truck off for five minutes then tried to crank her up. Nada. No lights. No horn. No click. It’s like there isn’t a battery in the truck. I’m stumped. Anyone run across a similar issue?
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Re: Won’t start. No power at all.
 

Sure you’ve thought about this, but I’ve done it before - Truck is in Park correct?

Re: Won’t start. No power at all.
 

If it's an automatic jiggle the shifter around a bit and/or shift it around a few times to make sure your safety switch is set properly. If not, check your clutch safety switch.

Otherwise check your ignition switch?

Does accessory position do anything?

Did you break a mirror in those 5 minutes?

-klb

Re: Won’t start. No power at all.
 

Not being in park wont make the lights not work,Ckeck both battery terminals then fusable link ,poss off battery should go to it on fender.

Re: Won’t start. No power at all.
 

Right. Something probably shorted. That or the battery gave up the ghost.

-klb

Re: Won’t start. No power at all.
 

This...

Re: Won’t start. No power at all.
 

Had this happen. Negative cable loosened and was contacting a painted surface although it looked to be properly connected.

Re: Won’t start. No power at all.
 

Check all your connections, and when that doesn't work, buy a battery. This is the failure mode for batteries, these days. Used to be you'd get a week or so of slow cranking before the battery went Tango Uniform. Now, it's "It was just fine, then nuffin'!"

Bought my wife a Kia Soul a little over two years ago. Turns out that the batteries in those things last only a little over two years. I have an inductive ammeter, which showed a 6 amp draw even after a half hour of the vehicle being shut off. No wonder! Now we just know that we'll have to look after the battery far more closely than we did before. That's pretty poor design, as far as I am concerned. I have a Kia Forte, and the draw is less than a fraction of an amp after I shut it off. I took the gauge up to the dealer, and we sampled two other Souls. Same result as my wife's. My youngest son has a Soul as well, so now we know to check the battery after two years. I bought the new battery for my wife at NAPA, so I'll take it in once a year to have it checked. I'll pay $100 any day for my wife or any member of my family not being stranded because of a battery. The inconvenience alone is worth avoiding.

Yep. In park.
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Re: Won’t start. No power at all.
 

I've seen the little plastic block bolted to the pass fender with the single stud and nut cause this issue.

Pull off the wires and clean them up and try again.

Re: Won’t start. No power at all.
 

sudden, full dead electrics is usually loose or corroded battery ground

Re: Won’t start. No power at all.
 

Check above your fuse block where the Horn Relay is located. Make sure you have power there.

Jiggled already. Nada.
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Re: Won’t start. No power at all.
 

If you have an aftermarket amp / volt gauge check and see if you have power going in and out of it. that's what happened to me some one had wired the fuse box feed through the amp gauge. it went out, no power.

Re: Won’t start. No power at all.
 

Oh my.

Re: Won’t start. No power at all.
 

This happened to me today. Cleaned and tightened battery terminals - no change.
checked and cleaned engine ground - no change
went to clean electrical connection on pass. fender found loose wire got truck cranked. I had parts s10 and grabbed one off it to replace rusted stripped old one.

Re: Won’t start. No power at all.
 

The OP needs to get a voltmeter and start thinking about the paths of current to and from the battery,
Measure battery voltage across battery terminals--good means nothing. 12.6V is charged and no load.
Charge the battery.
The small wire off the + terminal powers all the low current stuff.
Saying no power at all w/o measuring voltage is of no help.

Re: Won’t start. No power at all.
 

Loose battery cable or fusible link burned thru. Take voltmeter and see where you Do have voltage.

Re: Won’t start. No power at all.
 

Simply put....you are going to need a voltmeter and an hour or two to do some checks.
As much as I and others would like to say its a simple, single identifiable loose bolt that can be solved in 3 minutes with a flat blade screwdriver....it may not be...and only a methodical check and test of your system is going to solve this.

Do you have a Multi-tester/voltmeter and are you familiar with how to use it?....this is job 1.

Coley