help!!

[86suby]

Me and some buddies have a 86 subaru GL 4wd turbo wagon we bought for ripping around. The positive cable broke on us and since then it will not get any power from the battery what-so-ever. The positive cable does not conduct anything. We even bypassed the battery cable by hooking a jumper right to the starter, still nothing, no interior light, no electricity is making it to anything. The fuse links on the car are fine. What is the next thing in line that we should look for? what is blown so that the car will not recieve any power??

[ivymike1031]

when you hooked the cable right to the starter, did you bypass the solenoid? Is the negative cable intact?

[ivymike1031]

I spoke too soon.. you really didn't post enough info to give a good idea of what the problem might be.

Get a voltmeter and check for voltage at the battery. Connect a new (+) lead. Check voltage from the (+) side of the battery to the engine block. Check again @ the body. If you have 12V across the battery, and you have 12V from the battery (+) to the engine block and body, and you still don't have voltage at the fuse box, then look for another fuse in the system (honda has a little fuse box under the hood in addition to the one in the cab).

[86suby]

Originally posted by ivymike1031
I spoke too soon.. you really didn't post enough info to give a good idea of what the problem might be.

Get a voltmeter and check for voltage at the battery. Connect a new (+) lead. Check voltage from the (+) side of the battery to the engine block. Check again @ the body. If you have 12V across the battery, and you have 12V from the battery (+) to the engine block and body, and you still don't have voltage at the fuse box, then look for another fuse in the system (honda has a little fuse box under the hood in addition to the one in the cab).

Hmm, well we used a test light to do the tests you mentioned when it broke down, and the battery we were using was out of my personal car and it is still fine. We have searched high and low for fuses in the car. We found one box under the hood that had 4 wire loops connecting the terminals. We believe this is the fuse link box, but we arent sure if someone just jimmied it up with some peices of wire. I have never seen a fuse link like this, but it doesn't look like someone just made it, it looks good. I'll describe it to you...It is a peice of thin wire with two female connectors on each end. The insulation around the wire is cloth and is very loose, as in much bigger diameter than the wire itself. Does this sound like some kind of old school fuse link?
Here is the kicker though, they are all fine, none of them are blown. Yet the car still gets no power. There may be another fuse link but trust me we looked hard and found nothing. But lets just imagine that the fuses failed an did not blow, what would be the first thing to get fried from an overload and how could we test it?

[ivymike1031]

Hmm, well we used a test light to do the tests you mentioned when it broke down, and the battery we were using was out of my personal car and it is still fine

The positive cable does not conduct anything. We even bypassed the battery cable by hooking a jumper right to the starter, still nothing, no interior light, no electricity is making it to anything.

These two statements are inconsistent.

Do you have the following answers (yes or no to each)?

test light turns on when you connect it...
* across the battery terminals
* from (+) on battery to body of car
* from (+) on battery to engine
* from a socket on the fuse box to the body of the car (test all sockets until you find one that works)