86 newbie

hey so i was driving my 86 5.0 when the pos bat cable came off and hit the hood. magic smoke came from inside the car as i was pulling over. so now when i turn on the key nothing happens except my mechanical oil and temp gauge lights turn on even when the lights arnt turned on. so you guys, where do you think i should start looking? oh and all my fuses are good (surprisingly)

dawson1112

I suspect you blew a fuseable link someplace.

Boss_Hotrod

First look for melted or burnt wires. then check fuse links.

86 newbie

i looked at the fuse links and all fusses but couldn't find anything. now when i connect the bat, sometimes everything will come on like its supposed to except the fuel pump. it will even turn over. Than other times nothing will even come on except the dash lights will turn on.

88 orangepeel notch

Just to clarify, you looking at the fuseable links means you tested them right? If they did test good, I feel sorry for you and the can of worms your about to open. I don't care for electrical gremlins, but with patience and know-how, I've had some luck fixing them.

I don't even know where to start here, but verify all battery cables are tight and a good clean connection, especially the ground. It's odd that it'll turn over sometimes, maybe a fried starter solinoid, ignition switch, etc. My car had a bad ECM which took a while to figure out, intermittent fuel pump prime among other odd happenings. Do you have a spare laying around to swap? The computer usually don't do well with a shock like that.

86 newbie

I don't have any extra comp laying around. a couple of people have pointed me to the ignition switch being bad. can anyone tell me how to test this?

86 newbie

i replaced the ignition switch and the battery cables today. It seemed to work for about 10 min then everything shut off again. I wiggled my harness around and that seemed to have an effect of it but as i took off the tape that held all the wires together i couldn't get the result anymore. I spent a good 2 hours wiggling wires and couldn't find anything. Anyone got any ideas??

88 orangepeel notch

Now's where I'd start to find out what your losing when the car dies, fuel or spark.

Also, pull codes to see if that will narrow this down a little.

86 newbie

Ok, im switching it to a carbed 306 anyways so i have to take out the computer and wiring harness anyways so i might just do that and see if the problem is still there and if it is well there will be less wires to go through lol