DigitalMagician

Greetings fellow Toyota loyalists!
My friend who frequents the forums told me I should come here and "ask the elder council" if you would.

I'm rolling in a '78 Corona wagon with a 20R.
This little puppy has served me well over the years and has had only minor issues until the past 6 months.
It started with vacuum leaks leading up to a broken TCSV valve (which I broke myself, like a boss). I have since McGyver'd it back together.

However, I left the country for more than a month. I was in the middle of changing out some gaskets on the exhaust manifold when I left and finished that up.
I charged up the battery since I knew it was going to be low. BUT, interestingly enough, only my headlights turn on. My ignition, break lights, dome light, dash, or basically anything inside the vehicle is completely dead without any sign of being connected to the battery.
I checked the fuses and not I'm sure where to go from here. I know the starter is good and the connection running from the battery is fine too since I replaced it recently and checked it.

Anyway, anyone have an idea where I should start?
I know I don't have a truck, but I was told that it shouldn't make a big difference. But if that isn't the case, just let me know where to post my thread.

Thanks for reading! I'm going to keep trying in the meantime!

matstaley

check to see if there is voltage to the ignition switch and follow it from there. find out where all those components split off and go back towards the battery from there.

1980lwb

Maybe check the fuseable link to. Not sure if the headlights are on a different link or not but mine are..

DigitalMagician

I found something severed near the battery, and it looks to be, from what I traced, from the bundle of wires leading out if the ignition. However there are like 7 different wires and wrapped together most the time.
The severed one had a green clip-together sort of connector.
Would photos help?
And what is the fuseable link?
Thanks guys!

1980lwb

If its by the battery it more than likely is the fusible link. And a fusible link is just a piece of wire made to burn in two when it gets grounded out. Now with that being said if it's burnt into or ripped your not going to be getting power in to the fuse block. Now if it is burnt you will have to go to an auto parts store n buy a roll of it I think.

DigitalMagician

Thank you for the continuing advice all!

So I traced a few things back, and consulted the wiring diagram. And I'm still at somewhat of a loss.

I did discern which wire was specifically powering the headlights (it's red with blue stripes); but I have not been able to understand which one should be running to the ignition.

The wire that was severed is indeed fuseable link wire.
Here's a photo if that helps at all.



http://imgur.com/iix7a

As you can see, there a few suspect wires. Since this photo I have removed the connector that seems to be only jumping the two wires together, and have wire nutted them instead to be sure they have a solid connection.

My biggest question that is raised, is where does that severed wire go to, and where do I find which wire is responsible for my ignition coming from the battery?

Let me know if you guys want any more information. I might go take a photo of the wiring diagram.

Thanks again!

SPARKS89

iTrader: (1)

The wiring diagram would be able to tell you which wire you need to look for. Post a picture of it or a link that has it so we can take a look. Other than that it's just a process of elimination until you find the right one.

As far as the wire thats just sitting there doing nothing I wouldn't put a whole lot of thought into that right now. If you just found it then it was most likely like that before when everything was work fine and therefore is more than likely not related to the problem you're having now. You can figure that one out later (the wiring diagram will help with that too).

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

I had a similar issue on my '81..kept blowing the dash lights fuse.
turned out a previous owner had sliced a wire to get power off the dash circuit and than sliced the wire, it was causing a short.