no electric? what what?!

[ApAcH3]

alright, I've been reading on these alot, but i havn't posted on here, because I am not that great when it comes to fixing cars.... but heres the story:

I was having trouble holding a charge on my battery, i thought it was my alternator belt... I was partially right, because that was all chewed up. So after i take that off, i was like, what the hell? ill check my alternator too. I had a bad bearing. So I had to buy a new alternator and put it on. I reconnected the little plug in the back, and reconnected the ground. For some odd reason or another, I have no electric going to my car. I have no interior lights, head lights, brake/tail lights, no gauges. My first guess was I blew a fuse, i checked every fuse in the fuse box, and all were ok. I am SOOO lost on what it is?

my car is a Nissan 200SX (86) with the CA20 in it. It's stock, but i dont think that matters. My uncle told me it might be my 'brain box' that went out? I think he meant ECU...? If anybody has any suggestions, feel free to reply

[D-Bo]

a short somewhere around the ecu is a possibility.. another may be that your battery is dead.. check the charge on your battery and see if its got enough to start the thing.. if thats not it then make sure your battery terminals are clean and that connections are strong. other than that i can't think of anything..

[ApAcH3]

I have just purchased a new battery about a month or so ago, so that is fine, and I do have a 12.5V charge on my battery. So I guess that means my alternator is still putting out power to the battery. But where exactly is the ecu? I've seen fuseable links and such, but I'm not sure where the ecu is?

[D-Bo]

i don't know your car very well at all but it might be behind the passenger's side kick panel.. thats where it is on s13s and s14s

[ApAcH3]

yeah, I found the ecu.. passanger side kick panel, nice call! But the bad part is, I was unable to find a short. My only GUESS of what's wrong now is a fuseable link? [god I hate electricity..] I'm not sure which one to buy? and the book on my car [Chiltons] doesn't say anything about it. If anyone else has any more ideas, please tell me?

[Hit_N_Run-player]

the chiltons book for the 200sx is not very good, i have it also. So your battery is fully dead? Why dont you charge it and see what happens? Did you plug everything back in right?

[jamey240]

this may not do you any good, but it is cheap and worth a try. see about the battery cables themselves, try to replace them. i have seen instances when that will f up some stuff... and it is like the radiator cap i saw in another thread, the simplest fixes are the ones we overlook.

[ApAcH3]

hmmm... My battery is full, my alternator is still charging my battery. My car starts fine with my battery cable all jacked up. I found out last night that my cigarette lighter, and windshield wipers work. This is very strange, because still no lights of any sort. But yeah, I will be changing that battery cable once i get those lights to work. Can someone tell me how to test a fuseable link? all the regular fuses are fine. I think I might need a test light? I have a volt meter and a test light, I just don't know what to do...

[Hit_N_Run-player]

there is probably a short somewhere in your wiring. Your problem is a tough one..

[SHIFT_KA24DE]

are your grounds all working? seems like your components are all functional... it's something inbetween...

you can get a new grounding kit... they are really effective. (and worth a try)

[ApAcH3]

a grounding kit? where does that hook up? but I called a mechanic, and he should be out sometime this week to take a look at my car, and he also has all the electrical schematics.... I think maybe more people should think to get schematics for it... me definately included :-p