Ok, all of a sudden the other day I went to fire it up; no power. Not even to the radar detector plugged into the lighter.

I pulled the battery, charged it, still nothing. no power WHATSOEVER.

Replaced the voltage regulator. Nothing.

I suck with electrical. suggestions, please?

 

Are you sure the battery actually took the charge? Can you hook it up to something else to check.

 

Got a voltmeter? If not, you need one. Even a test light would get you somewhere.

First check is the battery, to see if it has any voltage at all. It's rare for batteries to get so drained that they have below 6V.

Next check are the battery connections and cables. If the connections are crappy or the cables are bad, current can't flow anywhere.

After that, I'd suspect the ignition switch. Disconnect the coil wire, then take a screwdriver (with a plastic handle) and jump the leftmost terminal on the fender solenoid to the small terminal directly adjacent to it. If the starter cranks, there's something wrong with the ignition switch or the wiring to the switch.

Go from there and report back.

 

Nevermind, Starfury beat me to it.

 

I thought the ignition switch too, but the radar detector stays on when the key isnt turned (unless I physically turn it off), so I can't see how it can be the ignition switch.

I can't figure out how to remove the goddamn ignition switch anyway. Thats another problem for another day, unless theres some way for it to actually be the culprit.

 

No, forgot about that. Lighter socket is unswitched 12V. Problem has to be around your battery.

 

Check the ground, check for continuity to the 12v switch etc.

 

Did you check the starter solenoid?

I had one go bad and the car might as well of not had a battery in it...wouldn't even offer to turn over, no radio, etc, etc.

The next time it went bad on me (mental note, buy the $20 part not the $10) the car was running and it wouldn't shut off.

I believe to test it you turn the key to on and then jump across it from your battery.

 

A bad solenoid isn't going to affect power to the rest of the car.

 

First thing that popped into my head are the battery cables. Check them.