1984 C4, 82K miles, bone stock

Yesterday, not too far from home, I was going to back into a parking spot. As the gear shift hit the reverse position, the car went dead dead dead. Motor stopped at that point and the dash went black.....the only thing I noticed was that the Antenna went down, I had the door lights and the Key chime. Everything that was working was as strong as usual.

Another thing I noticed was that when I hit the door lock button, something made a slight click but the door locks did not move.

I spoke with CC on the phone ( CC is my Corvette 911) and we were thinking it was a fusible link. BUT that being said, where do I start with this one??

A little back ground. My Back up lights have always been shorting out....I figured I'd be under there for some reason and replace that switch....not saying this is related......but actually I cannot say either way

Quote:

Sounds logical. I'd start with Fusible Link A at the starter.

Yes, fusible A.

I was looking up in the manual yesterday. The circuits you say still have power come off fusible link B.

Fusible A will kill almost everything.

The next question might be why did it blow? Something may have overdrawn the circuit. The "TURN/BackUp" fuse is 15 amps, but a shorted power source to it would kill your turn signals too.

Check both backup and rear corner bulbs and the fuse anyways. A dead bulb can fall apart and cause a direct short and kill the circuit. Pull the fuse and with key on check for 12V on either side of the fuse holder. Check continuity to ground on both sides of the fuse holder.

Fusible link A has two red wires coming off of it at the starter. B and C both just have a single wire.

I would expect those things to be good for 50 amps or so. Maybe it was corroded or something and a backup circuit short blew it out before the fuse went. Or maybe some jackass saw the backup fuse was blowing constantly so they put a bigger fuse in instead of fixing the problem!

CC, Ray, thank you very much, I have a place to start with. I have to get the car into the Garage and get it jacked up.

I'll have more info to report in a few hours.

This Link "A"....is it easily purchased at Kragens or is it a Dealer/Vette item??

Beats me...?

Maybe the wire could be cut and there's some type of equivalent rated fuseholder that could be put in its place?

Some of these links I've seen have a number on it which may be the amp rating.

Hmm. Here's one by beck/arnley from Rockauto.

p/n 1783204, 50 amp

[url]http://info.rockauto.com/BeckArnley/1783204.jpg[/url]

They also have 40, 60, 80...

That's a bad place for them though, it gets toasty by the starter and ypipe. Not sure if this is intended for that, plus you still have to solder the wire onto it.

NEVERMIND, DON'T USE THESE.

Here's some Dorman parts, not sure how these work or what replacement you'd use: (top right)

https://www.dormanproducts.com/catalog ... 3_EFinal_Part5.pdf#Page=3

Holy Smokes, good call CC. there is a red wire coming from the Starter that goes into a section of connectors. Those connectors are all taped up.

The red wire is crispy and burned good....right into two pieces.

As you said CC, I can fix this issue, but what caused it to begin with??

That may take a few days....

Does it look like the heat source was from the wire itself, or from the exhaust burning it? Or both? Overcurrent will only effect the weakest part of the circuit which is supposed to by the fusible link, which I thought was encased in rubber.

Maybe it was mostly cooked to begin with from the exhaust, and the little bit of overcurrent from a short in the backup light circuit finished it off.

It can't be a coincidence that it died as soon as you hit reverse. Remove all 4 of those bulbs and check them for shorts.

NO no, the wire is corroded green inside the casing. So it got nicked somehow and that green oxidation did it in. I think it may have merely been coincidental along with the heat of the day.

But here is my next question. I have this one link of wire that is bad. I stripped off all of the tape and the wires under neath look factory fresh. After the 16amp fusible link (encased in rubber like you described) it turns into two large gage wires that go all the way over the top of the motor...to the battery I suppose.

Am I looking to try to rip that whole link of wire out of the black housing all the way back to the battery???

OR

Should I get a connector and strip back the burned wire and add a new link just at that area.....if I did it this way, I would be replacing about 6" of pretty thick gage wire and putting a eyelet on the end that fits over that starter bolt.

Scenario two is a 20 minute job and should cost ~$10 at the most......

Fusible links, the in-line, wire type - (not the fuse-looking widget Kevin posted) - can be had at some of the chain stores (Auto Zone here in SoCAL). Don't ask the clerk, he'll try to point you to a fuse. But the fusible links are in the electrical section right near the fuses, and just look like a piece of wire in the bubble packs.

I have replaced them in the past without ever finding any apparent short or overload condition that caused the initial failure.

So just splice in a new link of wire?

if so, here is what I have to worry about. There are about 5-6 wired that go into the three fusible links that were all taped up. They come out as three individual wires and all three are spliced into one Eyelet that goes under the starter bolt.

If I splice something in.......it will most likely wind up being two wires into the original eyelet and a new wire with a new eyelet.

Not that that won't work but.....am I over thinking this whole thing? I probably am and I should just go get a piece of wire and eyelet and splice away and be done thinking about it....shit, see you after I get back from Kragen

Fusible link A is 16 guage.

It appears to be just a short length of wire crimped between the circuit and the starter. I would get that dorman part in the link from autozone or something.

The two wires coming off it are 10 and 12 ga.

Book says to use two links to repair it:

Quote:

I was just daydreaming about how much fun he'd have trying to get one of those from an autozone clerk...

I've had to draw pictures of parts for them before.

ya know, that 'other' forum has just about become useless........just an observation

Test Drive went A-OK

Next issue

Hey, don't knock the CF. You never know when you'll need advice on floor mats or the newest in rock chip protection.

lol........