Wiring help please...

[Chevelle454]

Okay, here's the deal...

The car is a 1984 Chevy Caprice.

Last night, I was pulling out of the parking lot at work(kinda given it some gas), when all my lights shut off. The headlights, taillights, interior lights, gauge cluster lights, hood and trunk lights, radio, horn, and the HI setting on the fan speed all stopped working. The brake lights and turn signals were all that was still working.

Tonight, I started testing the fuse box, and it seems that parts of it have no power where they should, with the key in any position. I took a jumper wire and put it from a 12V source on the car to a space in the fuse panel labeled "BAT". Everything worked on the car after I did that.

I tested things out, and everything seemed to work alright. I turned on the headlights, radio, then turned the fan on high and I heard a pop from under the dash. Now the headlights and taillights don't work anymore, but everything else still does with that jumper wire in place.

It appears that all the fuses in the fuse box are good. I can't find any fusible links. I can't get the lights to come on now at all.

Any ideas as to what I can try next? I am trying to sell this car and that will be very hard to do if things like the headlights don't work...

Thanks in advance...

[68C15]

it sounds like you started out with a fusible link issue which may have manifested itself due to loose wiring near the starter.
then after you did the jumper thing & turned on the heater the current flow was too much for the tapped circuit. you may have accidently blown the breaker in the light switch.
if you can wait until this time tomorrow I can go to work to pull up the wiring diagram to help further. if that is the case I request you do nothing more until I get a chance to investigate.
DISCLAIMER: I am not trying to be a jerk, just want to help.
Todd the tech.

[68C15]

is it possible to post a pic of where the jumper wire is?

[Chevelle454]

I can post a pic tomorrow...

The jumper wire is basically just a wire that comes out of the fuse box in one place, being fed by the box itself, and it disappears up into the dash somewhere, and comes back down and does not plug into anything. So I took the loose end, which has 12 volts, and I used a jumper to hook it into one of the two spaces on the fuse box labeled "BAT" and it worked for a while.

I am thinking that maybe the entire fuse box is getting fried internally for some reason and shorting out parts of the fuse box itself. Where would fusible links normally be? The starter is covered in about a half inch of greasy oil due to my leaky valve cover.

I can't think of anything that could have happened due to this, but I was burning the tires when everything went out...maybe something happened because of that somehow.