Working on my '79 Ford is as much fun as anything I have ever done and I am learning a great deal as I go. Exploring and thinking through problems is the most fun, especially when I solve one. I had one yesterday that I solved today and thought I might share it on the chance that someone else has the same issue. I had an intermittent problem with the truck not engaging the starter when I turned the key. Suspected a solenoid. I replaced the solenoid without any issue (I thought). When I tried to start the truck, I had no electrical power to anything; the truck was completely dead. No fuel pump, dome light, dash lights, head lights, etc. I cleaned all the ground connections, tried a different battery, checked continuity every where I could think of. I finally left the door open and watched the dome light as I started moving wires thinking I might have a broken wire. As I moved the wire with the fusible link, I noticed the dome light flicker. I checked the wire and found an open in the wire. Somehow, it had been broken. I repaired the wire (the fusible link itself seemed in tact). All my electrical came back and worked fine. I guess that explained the intermittent problem with starting cause it starts every time now. I don't understand how the fusible link from or at the solenoid controls all the electrical in the vehicle, even the extra circuits that I wired directly from the battery but it apparently does. I'll know where to start looking next time if there is one. What fun!!

 

reminds me of when I had that problem when I had my 1990 F250..
hit a bump, and boom everything was dead..checked battery connections, and what ever else I could there in the parking lot I pushed it into..got it towed home, and noticed the "limp" wire not 10 minutes after the tow truck dropped it in my driveway...stupid thing had corrosion on the inside and it just let go.. cut out the corroded section, replaced the ring terminal and she was up and running again..

 

Glad you were able to find it and fix it. Great feeling to figure it out. Can't begin to work like that on these new vehicles. Thanks for sharing your experience.