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[brine04]

Ok so I was at home on the weekend and got my car out of storage and the fan switch wasn't working so I was wiring it to the battery on a switch under the hood and I arced the wrench from the positive post to the aluminum end tank of the rad.

Now the car has no power at all. When i turn the key nothing happens. No dash lights, fuel pump doesn't prime, no dome like, no power windows. Power door locks work weakly. But sometimes everything comes on and the fuel pump primes but when i turn the key to engage the starter i lose all power again and it's like a relay or something is kicked out.

The headlights don't work either when it does this but when i push the hazard button a relay makes a weird rattling noise. I tried another main relay with no change and the battery fuse is fine.

Ok so what did I fuck up?

[brine04]

check your terms at the batt, fuses, etc

Battery terminals were tight and clean, ground seemed solid. I am not near the car anymore so I can't double check.

[BoostForLife]

check your terms at the batt, fuses, etc

Battery terminals were tight and clean, ground seemed solid. I am not near the car anymore so I can't double check.

Have you tried jump starting it yet, connect ground to frame or the block if you do try to jump it.

[Zarcorp]

If you arced from the positive terminal to the ground check if your battery has been shorted.

If you shorted it out at that part of the circuit it would have bypassed most/ all of the electrical systems in the car.

Is it a serviceable battery? Check the resistance between cells. 

[Doug]

Maybe your battery was weak to begin with and you discharged it? I did this working on my Civic when I let the wrench tightening the + cable touch the firewall.

[Joseph Davis]

Sounds like a a shitty burned through connection.  We all see them at the battery terminal, where you go to start the car hear a click and the electrical system shuts off.  You just have one somewhere else now. 

If it were my car I'd look at the POWER distribution connections first, then the ground paths.  You only need one or two shitty connections for the system to work.

[brine04]

I tried jumping the battery but only went terminal to terminal I didn't ground it to the chassis anywhere. Sounds like I just need to go through all the wiring. Fuck that should take awhile.

[Zarcorp]

Do what JD said, start at the hot side and work your way out.

That shit is going to flow from high to low.

[Conceptz-X]

If thw batt shorted, it will not have 12v.  Take a testlight, connect to one post and probe down the wiring working away from the battery.  Where you lose power, you found your open

[brine04]

If thw batt shorted, it will not have 12v.  Take a testlight, connect to one post and probe down the wiring working away from the battery.  Where you lose power, you found your open

Yeah i was thinking that or an ohm meter.

[Conceptz-X]

Ohm meter may not work because load makes the circuit break down

[Joseph Davis]

Resistance can not be measured where current is present.  Ohm meter what?

[Conceptz-X]

The circuit is functional to a caertain amperage, at which it fails and you lose power, an ohm meter will not produce the amperage needed to break down the circuit. That is why you need to use a test light when the car is acting up and trace the open down

[brine04]

Ok thanks for the help guys. I will start tearing into it when I get it down to where I live in a couple weeks.

[Conceptz-X]

Take your battery terminals off and scrape/clean them, even if they look decent, that would be my first step before tracing wiring.  Fought some shit kinda like this on the MR2 all it ended up being was a slight corrosion on a ring terminal that I bolted to the battery terminal