it's like there's no battery in truck. No power whatsoever; no headlights nothing; dead; First thing I checked was battery. Full charge. Checked battery connections and cleaned them to be sure. Not even sure if this could be problem but I removed all bulkhead connections and cleaned thoroughly (they didn't look bad...did this a short time ago). Seeing that the pos battery cable goes directly to starter relay, I replaced that with new one after cleaning all contacts. I inspected all the wires running along the inner fender along battery side and all look fine. Neg battery cable looks fine and grounded tightly. Only thing I did recently was pull dash out a little to remove speedo cable as I am replacing that. My amp gauge is already bypassed with a brass bolt through both connections from gauge and taped off with electrical tape (did that about a year ago) and it's still very tight and unmolested. I looked at fuse box and don't see a fuse that would have caused this and didn't see any that appear blown. Lastly, I got under truck and followed speedo cable routing to see if it's path is same as something else that I might have disturbed. Looks like maybe it shares a crossing with the Neutral Safety Switch wire but that appeared fine and this wouldn't cause a zero energy situation anyway. I'm lost as to what's my next step. Is there a fuse relay somewhere? I had the same situation on my Diplomat and it was a fuse relay on inner fender but I don't see one on this truck. Thanks! Larry

Check the fuseable link usually attached to the starter relay.

How do you test or tell if that is bad? I don't see anything from the relay to battery with actual fuse inside. I'll get a pic. Thanks.

There’s this white connector which I cleaned

Relay

Looks like the blue wire that feeds the red wires. I was trying to find a replacement picture for reference.

The wire I circled in purple? That's the closest I see to blue one.

Oh probably black one? Circled in orange in this pic

yes, the orange circled wire, trace it to see if it is connected.

Black wire from relay splits to to reds. One red to bulkhead other to the white connector I already posted so I think you're onto something even though It all seems to be connected.

Hoping you can see. Starter relay is new and I cleaned the black wire well. Cleaned bulkhead connections too.

The one that goes into the bulkhead usually feeds the starter switch to powers the truck. Take a test light and see if you have power to the black feeder wire to check for power. See if the bulkhead wire has signs of heat damage.

Okay got it. Thanks. What would heat damage indicate?

Inside of the connector that plugs into the bulkhead looks like it got hot. Still plugs in fine and contacts are okay as far as I can tell but at the bottom of the plug it is rough as if melted a tiny bit and I was able to pick off a couple small pieces of plastic that might have come loose as if melted of a small layer. Didn't pay much attention when cleaning the connector but now I recall seeing it. Again, everything plugs back fine and metal contacts are firm and in place. Any idea what happened and what I should do now?

Grab the red wires and pull. If the link is burned out, the black wire will stretch.


Tim

ok I'll try that

The fusible link will burn in two inside the rubber coating.

Thanks guys. You had me following the wires from the fusible link so being that the one red ones goes into bulkhead I decided to pull the gauge pod out entirely instead of just the ittle bit I did to check where I had bypassed the amp gauge. Once I did that I could see the red wire to the amp gauge had melted some prior to the amp gauge connector. There was an existing connection there but I have no idea whether it was factory or someone else had done but I remember giving it some electrical tape while I was there anyway doing the amp gauge bypass. When I wiggled it the key on buzzer started when I let go buzzer off. So that’s where the problem is there is some bare wire showing and it obviously had done a little bit of melting. Again I don’t know what this is and what would cause us to melt. I did add a 150 power master alternator about a year or so ago. This would not have caused that to happen with it? Here’s the problem junction in red wire. Just after is my wrapped amp gauge bypass and it looks fine still. I circled burn spot in orange. There's bare wire poking out top. Almost looks like there might have been some kind of factory inline fuse or something.

Glad you found it.

Might consider doing the complete ammeter bypass. Takes the load off the bulkhead connector, not to mention the harness.

http://www.madelectrical.com/electricaltech/amp-gauges.shtml



Tim