Okay so I recently bought a 1980 f100 inline 6 300ci, single cab, 4spd tranny. Truck ran fine, except fuel gauge didn't work. So I just kept a gas can in the back as a safety. Had my girlfriend drive the truck home one day and it ran out of gas. She poured the gas can in and tried cranking it but it just wouldn't run so i was forced to leave it on a dirt road for a couple days. On day one, the starter wouldn't turn but the wire going to the solenoid from the battery would get hot as **** when the key was turned. So I go back to the truck the next day and literally nothing works. I have no head lights, no lights on the dash come on, no brake lights. Nothing electrical works at all. I've put a multimeter to the battery to test it, put jumper cables on it, but a new battery, I've done everything for the battery so that's not the issue. I did take the older starter off, bench test it, and reaplce with a new one. What the hell do I do?????

 

I would start by replacing both battery cables, with a larger gauge wire if possible.

 

I checked battery leads with the multimeter and they all read 12.6V

 

First you want to run this test https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...w-starter.html


If a truck or car is new to me and I don't know the shape of the batt cables I replace them all as a start.
The hot cable shows bad cable or connection.


Now if I get it right you have no power to the inside.
At the solenoid where the batt + hooks to also has some other wires there they are fuse links and sends power to the rest of the truck.


If you use a test light with the needle end you should be able to check the smaller wires starting at the solenoid where it should light up. Working down the wire you will most likely find it will not light up and that is where the fuse link burned out.
You can get new fuse link wires at the auto parts stores.
Dave ----

 

Update: I moved some wires on the solenoid and I now have power. Starter was clicking so I took it off and bench tested it. It failed. Going to warranty it at AutoZone and reinstall the new starter today and hopefully the beast will be alive again.

 

I'm afraid you are also going to have to hunt down which wire was causing the problem. If you don't find it and replace ( most likely the fusible link portion of it ) it. There is a real good chance you'll have the same problem with losing power to everything. There was a reason you lost power in the first place.

I also like to pull the wires off the solenoid and clean up all the connections.

 

I'm thinking that the reason I lost power was because I took the solenoid off and put the wires in the wrong spot.

 

There's one wire on my 85 going to the positive battery term that everything basically runs off of heater, lights, ignition, etc. Make sure that wire isn't damaged loose dirty.

Male sure you have good ground between the battery body and engine.

For your gas gauge you could feel around on top of the tank for a loose wire or wiggle it and see if the gauge comes on. If it seems to be a bad connection just drop the tank down its not too hard. I've never changed a sending unit though so I can't speak about how hard that is.

 

You didn't mention you pulled the wires off the solenoid. You just said you went back the next day and didn't have any power. So when you said you moved wires I thought you were talking about wiggling wires. Sorry, my bad.

As you figured out, all the small power wires go to the battery side large post. Then you should have one small wire on the small "I" post and one small wire to the small "S" post. No small wires on the large post the starter cable hooks to.