Electrical problem with hot circuit

PLASYNSKI

MEMBER
CHEVROLET CAPRICE

Chevy Caprice 1989 305 TBI. While driving one night lights went out while driving. Currently no power to
headlights, heater fan, horn, inside lights, under hood light, courtescy alarms like left open door, key in ignition.

There is power to turnsignals, flashers, brake lights, power seats, power windows and locks, guages. And car starts and runs.

I was able to get the power to come back on a few times by disconnecting and then reconnecting the battery but turning on parking or headlights lights caused loss of power. Happened also when repeating and turning on fan blower. I was trying to see where a short could be. At first with fan, worked when turning on until I tried cycling blower then electrical power went out again. Same happened with horn.

I was able to restore power three times with the disconnection and reconnection of battery but now can not restore. All the fuses and two 30amp circuit breakers in the fuse box check out as OK. Is there some other resetable breakers in the hot circuitry? I haven't located the fuseable links but if they were open would not be able to restore power by disconnecting and reconnecting battery.

I also noticed that the radio quit working only static when on and no clock or station display when the initial failure occurred.

3 Replies

LYTN_J

MEMBER
19 POSTS

I'd clean the battery cables on both ends. Also clean the surface where they attach. You might peel back the insulation a little on the cables, see if there is any corrosion.

As far as the headlamps, the wiring diagram shows two hot circuits going to the lamp switch. The voltage for the headlamps themselves, traces to a fuseable link. The other hot circuit that goes to the switch, is for the outside marker lamps, 15 amp fuse.

This diagram I have isn't very good. The fuseable links should be underhood, passenger side, inner fender well.