A common question I see in Sparky's Corner is "My headlights don't work, what do I do!?", and it's cousin, "I accidentally touched the hot wire to the ground, now my ignition is dead, what do I do!?". Before you go switching headlight harnesses, ignition coils and dimmer switches, the logical adult tells you to bust out the ohmmeter. Even me, a Navy Diesel mechanic, thinks ohmmeters are a mystery, and prefers the haphazard parts replacing school of thought. Ignorance is curable. The headlights quit on my Skylark one day, and I was dumbfounded. Regarding that ohmmeter ineptitude, I got the next best thing, my 70-year old Pop. He busted out his trusty multipurpose voltmeter, and just like the lack of headlights told us, no voltage was going to my lights. "These Fisher Bodies always had ground issues", was my old man's common retort. I replaced the headlight harness, headlight switch, dimmer switch, and nothing! Couldn't drive the car in the dark. I got so frustrated that I bought a used Chevelle main harness and waddya know, my headlights were working. That is a tedious and expensive fix, but after finding a faster, cheaper answer to a common problem, the next time this happens, you don't have to spend a few hours or a new main harness to fix your problem. Last month, impatient me doesn't disconnect the hot wire from my battery when I replaced the timing chain. I placed the energised alternator on the grounded block. Sparks, smoke and swearing were the result. Got behind the wheel, and the car acted dead. No dash lights, solenoid click. Nothing. I don't exactly have the cash to outlay for another used A-body that may or may not work. So what's a guy to do? Does any of this sound familiar? Chances are, you fried a fusible link. Look in the picture above, see the orange and blue things in an otherwise colorless picture? Those are your fusible links. Crawl underneath your car, this is what you will see when you look at the starter. The yellow arrow is pointing to the translucent joint insulators seperating the fusible link from the feed wire. I always thought those translucent things were the fusible links, not the wire itself. If you haven't disconnected the battery, take the negative cable off the battery. With a 9/16 wrench, loosen the nut directly opposite the yellow arrow. If the engine has been out of the car before, now is a good time to reroute the starter cables through the motor mount to prevent chafage, shorting, or worse, small fires from melted tranny lines (you did that after the motor swap, right?). If that didn't kill the fusible links, the chafing will. Now after taking the 9/16 nut off the solenoid, the positive battery cable and the fusible links are free. Now I am holding what should look like the colored part of the first harness picture above. It clearly isn't. You can see the translucent joint right at my index finger, and the offending fried joint. The intact link will be flexible like a normal wire, the fried link will not. Most likely the insulation will be intact, and very stretchy, while the wire itself will be brittle. Before you ask, the towel reads "HEY, NICE VOLLEYBALLS". This is a little out of order, but these are most of the key players required to finish the job. Left to right, 5/16" wrench (yes, that is a wratcheting wrench!) For the battery, NAPA fusible link, solder, wire dykes, soldering iron. The only tools not here is the 9/16 wrench, and electrical tape. The fusible link is a GM-generic part, over the counter. Auto Zone brands it in the Help! section, I believe. Get to cutting and soldering! Leave the connection on the intact link, but cut off the remains of the burned link. Cut off the translucent joint from the burned link, and solder the NAPA link on. Instead of having two fusible links go to one connector, each link has its own connector to the positive solenoid terminal. Cover your soldered joint with electrical tape- GM would tuck the bitter end of the tape underneath the last wind of tape to prevent unraveling. Reverse the disassembly process, and drive your car tonight. I can't stress enough the correct routing of starter wires! I didn't pay any attention to that when I did my engine swap, a few wires rubbed, arched, and caused a small fire, causing my tranny lines to melt (you saw the brand new lines in the starter picture), and then causing my first link to fail. A simple $3 part could've saved me purchasing tranny lines, an engine harness, headlight harness, headlight switch, and dimmer switch. You know what they say about the cheapest part... Later KFD
:gp: This is a nice write up and the pictures to go along make it even better. And as you stated, DISCONNECT THE BATTERY FIRST!!! Things go alot easier when this is done. We have all fried something one way or another by forgetting to do this.
I second the motion! I would like to personally Thank You as I am currently suffering through this same crisis. I am planning on pulling the wiring harness at the solenoid and doing as you have shown. Lee
Been there and done that frying thing. I know TWO guys who have melted their wedding bands to their ring fingers by not disconnecting the battery first. A word to the fries.
