I was wiring up some fog lights tonight... I wire them into the ignition wire so they can't run when the truck is off. Anyways... when I was stripping back the insulation from the ignition wire, I accidentially cut a few of the copper strands. As near as I can tell, I cut 4. Now, the ignition wire is about a 10 or 12 guage wire, so 4 coppers strands is nothing... there are probably about 15 strands in there total (I'm guessing).

Now my truck won't start. Not a click, crank, grunt, nothing. Could those 4 strands make the difference? Everything was fine before I started the wiring. My battery test at 12.66 volts. The power and ground to the battery are find. Any thoughts?

 

you blew that big fuse thats in the fuse box in the engine compartment. check it out, bet its fried.

 

My guess as well.

 

Thanks, I'll check that. It would be very cool if that's all it was.

UPDATE:::

Anything that doesn't require the ignition be switched on works... (headlights), but everything else (radio, window, etc.) doesn't work.

 

One of these fuses?

 

i think one of the two that are at top dead center.

 

Jackson, I have never had to replace or even look at one of those big type fuses.

Can you see on the fuse if the link is broken?
If not, try a continuity test with a multimeter to see if it's good.

Let us know what you find out.

 

Thanks for the help guys... once again the board comes through in the clutch. It was one of those fuses... the grey one (see pic below). I didn't think it was blown at first... didn't look it at least. I had to remove the fuse and take the clear cover off to be able to tell that it was blown. Of course with my luck, I figured it out at precisely 10:03pm, so no auto parts stores are still open. And of course with my luck, all my windows are down, including the tailgate window, and I have no way to put them up. And of course with my luck we are supposed to have some pretty decent storms roll through tonight, so I had to throw 2 tarps over the rig to cover all the windows, and bungee them down good incase it gets real windy.

Anyways... it was the fuse, and I'm done for the night. Hopefully this bad boy won't be too expensive to replace. I should get one or 2 extra just to be on the safe side. Anyone know how much I should expect to pay for these fuses?

Thanks again everyone - I owe ya... I never would have thought it was a fuse.

 

Jackson, in a pinch, I bet you could put in some heavy wire between the two terminals to make a connection so you will have juice flowing so you can roll up your windows.

I have never done this either, but I bet a heavy wire would do the trick long enough to power up your windows?

 

It's a good thought... but I've already got the rig tarped up... it's almost 11:00pm here, and I don't feel like screwing around with it any more.

 

I hear ya there.
It's still around 80 degrees here or so, and sunny out at 8 PM.

It would be kind of hard working on it late at night and in the dark.

 

you fried the fuse under the hood marked AM2 I did the same thing. I thought I warned you or somebody not to splice them into the IGN fuse a couple days ago?

here's the quote from the thread earlier in the week:

 

I paid about 1.50 each for them at pepboys. got two extras too. but then I wired the hot wire from the switch to my sirius satellite receiver + terminal which is direct to the battery.

 

ive bought a few of those fuses myself installing alarms, you should always unhook the battery when working on your electrical system.

 

what, I was up until 2am doing mine, but the beetles were flying all over in the garage and kept flying into my shirt.

 

baaaahhhh! haha. I know, but sometimes that laziness factor kicks in, haha. even if I'd a unhooked the battery, it would have blown when I hooked it back up because it was wired wrong, the IGN terminal on the fuse block just plainly shouldn't be used to hook up the lights.

 

^oh, that sux. hey i was checking your price...i installed alarms at the stealership and my "special stealer price" was still like $5 on those type of fuses, and i was 17 when i had that job, that was a grip back then!

 

I didn't go to the stealership for that 30A JCASE for that same reason, over-friggin'-priced! I went to 4 different stores and all were out of them but carried them all for around 1.50-2 a piece. the places were the major stores, autozone, pepboys, oreilly's, and napa.

 

Thanks for all the info. Those prices are much better than I thougth they were going to be... I was anticipating $10+.

FWIW... I'm wiring directly into the ignition wire... lime green and black wire under the steering column. I don't like wiring into fuse boxes.

 

I don't have a garage to work in.