My truck was running fine, but my temp gauge wasnt moving so I thought it was stuck and i tapped on the top of the dash. When I did this I loss power to my dash lights, ignition, clutch safety switch, radio and even my heater/ac wont turn on. any ideas what I did? I cant even start the truck now.

 

Sound like you jarred a wire that shorted...start by checking all the fuses. Hopefully, the bad popped fuse will lead you to the circuit with the bad wire(s).

 

Yeah I didnt hit it very hard, I took off the dash and the cluster but could not see any wires that would have been impacted. What wire would connect all of those things? any idea.

 

It might help to say just what your working with??

Start at the battery and check for open fuses and fusible links something is open some place.

Did you tap this a little harder then you think??

Hear any arcing when this happened.

 

It is a 87 pickup

 

See if you can wiggle the fuse panel inside. It may just need to be tightened. Sounds like more than one circuit.

 

I found my fusible link, next to the battery the 80A one, was blown. I put a new one in and it instantly blew.

 

Then you have a dead short in that circuit .

They can be a pain to find just rubbing against a ground body part or even just a ground wire

 

Get schematic,
Get a multi-meter (No multi-meter? Harbor Freight is your friend)
Disconnect battery,
Replace battery with multimeter in resistance mode,
YES- Replace battery with multimeter in resistance mode.,
Replace blown F.L. You should then get very low reading, something like a fraction of an ohm. (dead-short)
Disconnect one fuse at a time.
When you disconnect a fuse but you still have a dead short, re-install that fuse. Move on to others.
When you remove a fuse and you lose the dead short, you know that short is on that leg taking power from that fuse. Get schematic if you did not do as I suggested above.
Inspect wiring, including near where you tapped the dash.

 

Problem was my oxygen sensor wire was touching my valve cover. I resealed it up and no more blown fuse.

 

Thanks for the report. Frequenters to this site (you may become one!) slowly build up a mental picture of "the things to look for first."