Hi all, as you can undoubtedly see I am new here and I am hopefully not re-posting an already asked question (I did search for a bit but man there are alot of posts here!)

I have an 87 2wd 22r automatic with 315xxx pickup that I love to death. Recently I have started to try and do some routine maintenance work myself, oil changes, system flushes, spark plugs, that sort of thing. The other day I decided to clean out my carb and purchased (probably against my better judgement) some carb cleaner, took my filter off and sprayed it around the carb. I went to start my truck and it came on for a sec and then died. I turned the key again and had no power to any instruments, stereo, dome light, not even the headlights. I took the carb off and saw that the sensor at the top of the "christmas tree" was wet (with carb cleaner I think) and the rubber between the wire and the sensor that screws into the block was melted and gooey. I cleaned this out the best I could and still no power, so I tried jumping it.

Big mistake, my battery still had charge and I shorted something out, blew some of the negative lead on the battery and almost started a fire. Nothing woudl I replaced the 80A fuse (the one in the engine compartment that the battery leads screw into) and a 7.5 fuse in the cab. When I did this and reconnected my battery the headlights turn on, but when I try to start the truck the battery light comes on in the dash, but the stereo and instruments will not come on. Is it possible at this time that I just need a new battery, or could it be one of the relays under the fuse box in the cab (the one next to the drivers left foot)?

I am really stuck as to why it died when I sprayed the carb cleaner and why there was no electricity at all BEFORE I fried the battery trying to jump it. Any help would be appreciated.

 

jumping the truck shouldnt have blown anything. you obviously had an electrical problem before hand. spraying carb cleaner into the carb shouldnt have caused anything either. maybe you bumped something electrical and it set off this chain of events. check all fuses and relays.

if your horn still works, hit it and pull a relay, hit the horn again to see if it works. if it does not, you know what relay works the horn. pull the other relays and plug them into the spot that made the horn work. if the horn honks, that relay is good. if it doesnt honk, relay is bad. check each relay in the one spot that works the horn.

i am unsure if the older toyotas have fusable links. but that maybe an option if your truck has them. they are basically wires that are supposed to burn up incase of an electrical short

 

Well, complicating issues is the fact that my horn did not work before this incident (the problem was somewhere in the wiring in the steering column). I am somewhat of a newbie mechanic as I am a full-time student and this being the summer I decided to learn more about my car, or should I say learn more about breaking my car.

Do you think I can try doing that with the lights? They are the only electrical thing that works right now. I should clarify that when I tried to start the car my buddy heard a clicking sound coming out of the fuse box by the battery. I replaced one fuse but is it possible that the wiring is bad as well?

 

yes you can probably check relays with other electrical options. do yourself a favor and get a factory service manual, chiltons, or haynes repair manual. it'll have wiring diagrams to help you out. unfortunately i'm not familiar with older toyota trucks. and yes it is possible you fried some wiring. i'd check any wires coming off the battery for burn spots/shorts. this includes your ground wires also. where did the fire almost start? that'd be the first place i'd check. start going through wires and look for something obviously wrong. you should find something. also google how to check relays. you might find some other simple way to check them besides the horn or lights check. maybe someone else here can give you an idea