Electrical help needed :(

I am trying to figure out an issue with a friend's 1980 Ford F-150 truck. I can not get any power to anything from the battery. The only wires coming from the battery are a positive cable (large) to the solenoid and a positive cable from the solenoid to the starter. The ignition switch wire is also connected to the solenoid. From the negative terminal, there is only a large cable going from the battery to the engine block.

Where would I find the wires that feed the rest of the truck? There are no smaller gauge wires from the battery to ANYWHERE including the alternator.

Kael

 

Should be picking up power for the fuse box from the starter lug.

 

Not with a ford solenoid, the starter's dead except for cranking. The truck should either have a dual positive cable, one to the solenoid, and one goes to a terminal block. Or more common, the truck will feed off the input lug on the solenoid and have a single battery cable

 

First of all thanks for the answers. I can not find any wire that looks like it should go to the input lug. The input lug has a second nut on it so I looked to see if maybe the main feed wire broke off but there is no wire end terminal under it. Do you know what color wire should be there? To complicate matters more, the truck was running last week. The friend replaced the top radiator hose and the next day the truck had no power. The battery is fully charged also.

Kael

 

Make sure the ground cables are clean and tight, at the battery and on the frame/engine end too. Are you using a test light to determine where you have power?
I have seen a lot of bad solenoids do weird stuff on Fords. If you're sure the battery and cables are good you want to try a cheap guess start with the solenoid. Should be less than $20.
Do you have any power, anywhere? Headlamps?

 

Nope, no power anywhere. Other than at the battery. On my way to get a test light or volt meter from home.

 

There are fusable links in the wires powering the cab and the charge wire from the alt. The one to the cab may be burned out. Should be a heat shrink over the links
Jeff

 

did you try jumping the solenoid to see if it will crank over??....there should be a fusable link at the solenoid, make sure that isnt burnt..

If my 81 f100 still had the Ford engine in it I'd look mine over but I hacked the ford mess out and rewired most of it for the Chrysler engine and charging system..

 

I forgot to mention that about jumping across the solenoid. I have power at the solenoid and when jumping across the 2 main lugs, the starter does engage.

There is not even an evident wire that would go from the alternator to the battery.

Going to check more with a volt meter soon.

Kael

 

The last Ford battery cable issue I had was the OEM terminal was corroded enough on the inside to not to let anything power up. Looked perfect, but a green mess on the inside of the formed-on terminal. Cut it off, bolted a new one on and went on my way.

 

Where does the alternator wire go?

 

If nothing else changed, you've got corrosion somewhere, either in the positive cable, but more likely your ground cable needs to be taken loose and cleaned on both surfaces, lug and block.

 

If its cranking when you bridge the solenoid then it definitely sounds like a fusable link.

I too have had experience with ford hiding them away out of sight, with the only hint that its a fusable link being that its got shrink wrap on one small section. I removed all of them (about 4 in that one area) and replaced with a large fuse holder and a correctly rated fuse to run the car.

In my instance, it was close to the battery, about a foot back down the cable but mine had 2 cables, one for starter and the second one (medium size) to run the rest of the car.

Good luck!

 

The fuse link you are looking for should be in the wire going from the solenoid to the cab. It will have heat shrink. If you have 12 volts at the back of the alt. that one is ok. I am kinda using information I've acuired working on pickups a little newer than 1980, but ford did the fuse links for a long time.

 

Found the problem. When my friend changed the upper radiator hose, he also climbed up under the hood to change the plugs. Since he literally climbed into the engine bay, he stepped on the wires coming from the solenoid and broke them. That was definately not what I expected his excuse to be. He is fairly short so that is best way for him to work on the truck that has about a 6 inch lift on it.

Kael