Recently my brother left for boot camp, and left me his 1987 Ford Bronco, as I've been interested in it for a while. He'd been having some issues before I got it, but they seemed resolved, but now I'm having a problem.

It hadn't been driven in about a week when I went to start it, and I got nothing. I mean nothing... the lights wont even come on. There is no power. We attempted to jump, got nothing... my limited understanding is that the lights should be independent of the ignition, and thus this tells me the problem exists prior to the relay (I could be dead wrong here... I am pretty new to this, so I'm learning as I go).

The only remaining issue I was aware of is that the brake lights were not engaging, and my brother vaguely mentioned something about a fuse melting. I don't have anything more elaborate than that.

Frankly, the main reason I wanted this truck was the opportunity to work on it, as I don't know vehicles and I felt it would be an opportunity to learn... so, uhh, help me learn

TL;DR version: There is no power in my truck. None. Please provide troubleshooting steps. Thank you

 

First step would be to check your battery. If the battery is good then check all connections. If your still having a problem then there is probably a short somewhere, the easiest way I know to find a short is to put a meter on your battery and read the draw in amps. If there is a short the meter will show how many amps are being drawn from your battery without permission so to speak. Then start pulling fuses until you see that the meter goes to zero. If you pull a fuse and the number in the meter drops or zeros you found a leak in your electrical system, match the fuse to your operators manual and start tracing out your wires. Good luck.