No Power... nothing

[grey169]

I have 71 Mach 1 with no power. The car has been sitting for 15 years and has not run during that time. I have rebuilt the engine and reinstalled it.

The issue I have is there is no power. Nothing. No lights. Nothing will turn on.

The engine will roll over if I bypass the solenoid.
The fuses all check fine.
I have new batter, new solenoid and new regulator.

Can any one give me a hint on where to start on resolving this issue?

[Mikes73]

How is the ground from the battery to the engine block?

[grey169]

I have it tied directly to the engine block with a new cable.

[will e]

The engine rolls over but the car doesn't 'start'? (When you bypass the solenoid).

That means the battery cables are good. You might verify you have ground to the body. I would run a wire from negative to body and see if the lights come on. Especially the brake lights.

[grey169]

We have tried that as well with no effect. We have a good ground.

[will e]

Okay, next thing to check is the fused link. If I remember correctly it typically comes off the starter post (hot side) and is black. There is a bulge in the wire. This may have been bad.

You can test the fuse panel with a volt meter as well. See if you have any hot circuits at all.

[grey169]

I have no hot circuits. I will check to try to find a fusable link. Any thought on where I might be able to find this?

[piper62j]

  engine out (3).JPG (Size: 85.23 KB / Downloads: 63) With a voltmeter / ohmmeter,,, Begin tracing your wires back to the fuse panel and test for voltage and circuit continuity... The two small wires at the solenoid, power wires to the (+) positive side of the solenoid, blown fuses, corroded fuse holder terminals, cracked or broken wires especially in the engine compartment.
By jumping the solenoid and having the engine crank over, the problem lies in power supplied from the solenoid to the primary side of the ignition system and vehicle main bus.. Check out this pic for the solenoid wiring. You can see the fusible link on the red wire..

[midlife]

Yeah, my bet is on the fusible link or if it has been replaced in the past, I'd also bet on the crimped connector right there at the starter solenoid. I've also seen power lines attempted to be spliced mid-harness by simply twisting the 10 gauge wires together---let me tell you that that doesn't work terribly well.

Another easy test is to disconnect the negative battery terminal and measure the voltage between the disconnected terminal and the battery post. If no power exits the starter solenoid area, the voltage would be 0V, not the expected 12.8V.

[mach1chick]

Ground cable from block to frame ok?