Out of nowhere, my truck is completely dead. Been running great, was driving, turned it off. Ten minutes later went to start it, and nothing. No dash lights, no headlights, no hazard lights, nothing, not even dim.

But my LED bar light works fine (not wired through the ignition). I put a wire from the battery directly to my on-board air compressor and runs full power, so that pretty much rules out the battery. And the fact the hazard lights won’t come on means it’s not just an ignition issue (I think).

I’ve checked every fuse and connection etc that I could think of.

Any ideas at all? What else could I check? I’m broken down in a very inconvenient location on the side of a major road though a city that doesn’t allow overnight parking. It’s late so I’m already gonna have to spend tonight here in the truck, but hoping to get it going somehow as quickly as possible, before a terrible place to sleep turns into something worse, like my truck getting towed or who knows.

Any help, ideas, thoughts, insults etc of any kind would be greatly appreciated, especially timely ones..


Not sure where I should post this since my truck and therefore ignition and everything is an 88 pick-up but I put a 3.4 v6 in it from a 2000 4Runner, so it has that motor and computer etc. But the swap was over six years ago and something like 70k pretty rough miles ago, so the problem isn’t related to the swap itself being done wrong or something.

 

Ignition switch?

 

Would the hazard lights still work though? If not though, how can I check the ignition switch?

 

I "think" the hazard lights work regardless of the key on or not.

The reason I suggested the key switch is because I have a 90 pickup that I got recently, abandoned on a friends property. I had nothing, no power like you are experiencing. I think the headlights went on though. The ignition switch plastic housing had fallen apart. It's different than your 88 though.

I have an 88 with a 3.4 swap so I'm trying to think what would all of a sudden "disconnect" all power. Fusible link in the panel under the hood? Where the main power feeds into? Sorry, I can't go look at mine anymore. I pulled it for my 86 Xtra cab build.

 

The fusable link is good, so what’s next?? I don’t see or find any lose wires or anything around the computer or anywhere. But that must be it somewhere right? Just keep looking?

 

Yeah, I just went out to look at my truck. The engine is out but the wiring is still there. All my main battery and alternator heavy cables went to that box on the right fender where the fusible links are. I couldn't log in on my phone to send pics. Sounds like you checked it anyway.

All I can think of is start checking where you lost power with a meter or test light? How about your grounds?

Whatever happened was sudden it seems. Hopefully something simple.

 

Headlights should work regardless of the key on or off. I think the brake lights as well. If you have NOTHING, I have to guess it's like the battery got disconnected.

If you have a good battery, good clean connections, good ground, you SHOULD have power TO that fusible link.

I "think" it goes from there to the main power relay by the driver's footwell. Where the fuse panel is.

I "think" the key switch/ignition switch turns on this relay.

Sorry, I'm going by memory.

 

Head/tail/brake lights should all work regardless of key on or not. So should the hazards.

Having said that, and presuming you have a multimeter, pull the "fusible link" portion of the engine fuse lock up, and look to see that you have battery voltage on both sides of the "fusible links". Those large blocks that are really fuses. Their connections are screws on the bottom of them, and you can check to see that you have voltage on both screws of each one. It has a bolt holding it in, and a plastic clip, too. Easiest to just pull off all 3 bolts holding the whole fuse block down.
Also, check that the input to them, the heavy white wire going from the battery to that portion of the engine compartment fuse block, has voltage at both ends. That can be burnt open inside the insulation, with no external indications of any kind.

Good luck, hope things work out!
Pat☺

 

Thanks so much for all the replies! I really appreciate it. I just finally got it sorted.

So, unfortunately haha I’m pretty familiar with the box on the passenger wheel well with the 100amp fuse in it and the fusable link coming off it, from a past mishap haha.

Those fuses looked fine and I actually swapped out the 100 just to be safe a few months ago trying to figure out something else. And I said the fusable link was good, just because I knew it wasn’t connected to anything. I don’t remember doing this, but it was just rolled up and taped to itself. I only just learned all about it a few months ago when I had a big issue. Since I swapped in my 3.4 the battery is on the other side so that fusable link isn’t right next to the battery anymore. So when I did the swap I musta just taped it up cause I didn’t know what it was haha. Doesn’t seem like me, but maybe the truck started and ran fine so I figured it wasn’t important? I don’t know haha, well anyway, I found that 100 fuse wasn’t getting enough juice, so I for the first time actually installed that fusable link, by just running a longer wire across the front of the truck between it and the battery. Totally works great now!
Now, why it was working perfect all this time and something happened all at once so it wasn’t getting enough power, I have no idea. Maybe something else grounded out somewhere or something, but it all works and reads perfect now, and I even have the safety of having that fusable link in there now for the first time haha.

thanks again for all the replies!

 

Glad you got it working and thanks for posting up what you found. Dead end threads suck.