Chevy not starting

[Liftedchevrolet]

I have a 72 chevy k10 lifted with a 402 big block in it. It was running fine but the other day I went to start it and it kicked and back fired. Which is usually on the first crank. But then everything went dead and it won't crank and all the electronics went out. The radio wont turn on and the horn wont work. Any ideas?

[michael bustamante]

How does the fuse box look? Any fuseable links on the starter wite or adjoining? How about the negative cable?

[GASoline71]

There is a fuseable link that comes off of the positive battery terminal and goes to a "hot post" on the passenger side fender under the hood. Check the fuse in that link.

Gary

[Liftedchevrolet]

Would that cause the radio and all other electronics to not work. Cause it dosnt even click like its a dead battery.

[jjzepplin]

Yep. The small cable coming off the + side of the battery goes to the truck and the big battery cable just goes to the starter. Follow that small cable and look for issues and bad fusible links etc. Fusible links have much softer wire inside and funny looking clear cylinders around a section in the middle. Sometime hard to tell if blown but will feel limp like the wire inside is broken.

[Liftedchevrolet]

I checked and the fuse on the fender looks to be on good shape. Any other ideas?

[jjzepplin]

Which fuse? What did it look like. Take a pic and we could help more. If the fuse looks stock with a rubber housing-that one is just for the amp gauge on the dash. The positive smaller wire should go directly to a junction block on the fender.

[Liftedchevrolet]

This is the fuse i found. It looks to be intact. Where you talking about a different one.

[jjzepplin]

Never seen that one before. Looks after market. Take a pic of your battery cables if you can.

[Liftedchevrolet]

here is the battery wires. I bought it from a neighbor and he bought it from a guy in utah who did a bunch of custom work on it.

[Liftedchevrolet]

Here is what the truck looks like.

[jjzepplin]

Nice looking truck!
Follow that smaller red wire connected to the pos. battery cable. That is power to the rest of your truck.

[Liftedchevrolet]

It goes into the fuse I showed and across to the opposite side of the truck. Would that also make the engine not turn over?

[jjzepplin]

Something here is not right or modified in some way. The original fusible link must have fried and then they put in a fuse. But it should still be wired to a distribution block on the inner fender just to the left of your battery. Is there a positive wire going to that block? Is the block still there? I am thinking you need to start checking for voltage first from your battery then to the other side of that fuse and then to the dist. block on the fender.

[Liftedchevrolet]

I will check can you post a picture of an example of what the distributor block looks like.

[jjzepplin]

If it wasn't raining flood style right now I would go outside and take a pic.
It screws to your fender and just has a few positive wires (smaller than battery cables) all bolted to one small bolt insulated by the black plastic.
Take a pic of your inner fender on your negative side of your batt.

[Liftedchevrolet]

is this it?

[jjzepplin]

Yep. Check for voltage to that post.

[Liftedchevrolet]

Before I checked the distributor block I put the ends of the multimeter on the battery and only got .002 volts. Could the battery be so dead that it dosnt even click the starter anymore.

[jjzepplin]

Yep-simply a dead battery. CHARGE!

[Liftedchevrolet]

I charged it and it was still dead. So I tried to jump it. When we hooked it up whichever truck was hooked on last sparked like crazy. I got the battery tested and it's crap. But it still shouldn't spark when hooked up to jump it should it?

[litew8]

If you tried charging it and it failed to hold a charge, no need trying to jump start it. How long have you been driving it, before the battery up and died?

[Liftedchevrolet]

I just bought it from my neighbor. And drove it across the street and have started it up a couple of times since. But it still shouldn't spark when jumped. Should it? Do you think the grounds could be bad?

[litew8]

Some spark should be ok. Sounds like there may be a preexisting condition (e.g. it isn't charging the battery), or, it's a coincidence the battery up and died the minute you drove it across the street. It'd be a good idea to check all wires for good connections and ground straps (not rusty) - for peace of mind when you install the new battery. While you're at it, check the alternator.

[Liftedchevrolet]

It didn't die right when I brought it over. It had bin there for about a week. And it sparks a kit and smokes a lot. And if you connected it to the second truck last those connections would spark and burn.