84 Pickup No dash lights, no headlights, no accessories Help
 

Hello all, I have been lurking for awhile and have been wrestling with a pretty unique electrical issue. Back Story is I have rebuilt my head gasket with a brand new head and a weber carburetor. Bought a brand new battery too. Took my time and got everything back together about a week ago, which is where my issue first popped up. Went to start the truck and it was turning over with full power to everything, decided to stop and use starting fluid because I know cranking can be hard on the starter. When i retried, the starter was dead. Had it tested and replaced it. Upon removal of the starter, I touched the positive cable with a wrench and sparked it. Didn't seem bad to me at all, but once I got the starter reinstalled I went to turn the ignition and all the lights came on then immediately went DIM, I had seen this before and had my alternator tested and it too was bad, assuming from my dumb mistake with the wrench. So now here is my problem, New battery (showing 12.7 Volts, new starter (tested at store), new alternator ( Cannot be tested at store/in vehicle test only). I am not getting any in cab dash lights lit, radio wont come on, no head lights. hazards make a faint clicking sound but wont light up. I checked all fuses and even replaced AM1 and AM2 fuse in the engine fuse box. Its all getting power. I don't have what appears to be a fusible link, which is what everyone suggests replacing on any of these questions. I checked multiple grounds and even redid a few of them, including the one on the battery. I am getting 12V to the starter from the battery. If I let the truck sit over night, all the accessories work and the dash lights come on, but then then immediately click off if i put it to start or wait for about 10 seconds.

Any help would be appreciated and I can answer more questions if this isn't thorough enough.

Load test the battery.

Battery likely dead.

No load battery voltage means nothing.

What does the battery voltage drop to when you attempt to crank??

So my multimeter is an innova auto specific one. I turn it to load test 12v and the green light comes on. under load test and is reading 12.7V, I had the wife turn the key on while doing this, but nothing happens on the meter. No lights in the dash came on or radio or anything, cant even get to the cranking to test that. I bought the battery from Walmart a week ago, 800CCA battery.

I am not familiar with a multimeter that can do load testing of auto batteries.

The load testers I know draw 100amps or more thru a heavy duty resistance grid while viewing voltage drop.

Multimeter leads would melt if subjected to such high loading, not to mention what it would do to the instrument itself.

Of course, you could view the voltage drop while cranking with a VOM, but thats not really a fair load test of the battery itself when it may be that the starter, or other related components and/or wiring might not be up to snuff.

Ok, so on your advice I found the problem. THANK YOU SO MUCH. If it were not for you I would have never thought it was the battery. Took it to get a load test and it wouldnt read, I had put posts on it as it was a side screw battery and I had top post terminals. I bought new terminals and put them on and it works brilliantly! :bang:

You're welcome.