Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Hey guys,

I reversed out of my car park today... went to put it into first gear and lost all power...
It's not a battery issue becuase my headlights still work... But nothing works which requires the ignition to be on the 'acc' or the 'on' positions. It also doesn't register when i turn the key.. both the lights on the dash or starter wont go at all... its completely dead.

I first thought it may be the ignition barrell...
The only thing was a burnt electrical type smell... It came from the positive battery terminal.

From the positive terminal on the battery.. There is one connection which goes from two wires, into a link type thing which splits these two wires into two more wires from each. One of these first wires has completely burnt out and wont transmit power. If you bypass this first wire and hook the next one to the battery, it sparks its head off.

I think this tells me there is a major short somewhere.. but where

I got it towed today and its sitting out the front all lonely

Anyone had this type of thing happen ...
Nick.

At the battery terminal there are several fusible links. If you tell me which one has blown I can point you in the general direction of the fault. They are as follows:

Green wire fusible link from battery, through connector, to Red wire with yellow tracer. This is the horn and headlight circuit.

Pink wire fusible link from battery, through connector, to white wire. This is for the Air Con circuit.

The following two fusible links go to the black moulded thing -

Black wire fusible link from battery through connector, to black wire with red tracer. This is for the glow plug circuit.

Black wire fusible link from battery through connector, to 2 white wires. These white wires go to the rest of the circuits. I'm guessing it's this fusible link thats open circuit.
If it is remove all the fuses in the fuse boxes (2 fuse boxes) located near the accelerator pedal and hopefully the short will be gone. If it's still shorted it's possible someone has added extra wiring that is unfused and it's taking out this fusible link.

The fusible links are actually the coloured wires that attach directly to the battery. The colour of the fusible link wire denotes the current capacity.

Up late on Saturday night Stu

Ahhh.. thanks so much Stu... I might go try it out now (i know its a bit late... but i dont want her on the road til monday )...

I'll let you know how it goes...

Cheers again.. Nick

Black wire fusible link from battery through connector, to 2 white wires

It is this one that is the problem Stu... I removed all the fuses from both boxes and it stll sparked when i bypassed the first wire.
Looks like something deep into the wiring loom

Auto Elec on Monday for sure.. damn

Still, by the time you blow out a fusible link, you know you're really cooking, it suggests that you're pulling large amounts of current, and I'd be guessing a wire has come loose somewhere and is grounding out back to the body.

I haven't seen the electrical diagrams for your car, but sugest maybe if you just get a multimeter / continuity tester and trace each wire, looking for the one which is earthing out.
Pay extra attention to the area behind the fuse panel, look at where wiring rubs against other things like through the firewall, and anywhere else, as Big-Stu pointed out, someone may have thought it would be a good idea to half mongrel a bit of extra wiring in to the circuit.

Thanks for your help fellas...

A wire had rubbed through and was shorting out on the motor... Cost me all of 30 bucks at the auto electrician Better than i was expecting to pay anyways

Big thumbs up to NRMA also... they towed me home when it died on me on Saturday... and then again today to where I was getting it fixed! All no charge YAY!

Cheers, Nick.