Running fine then death upon shutoff

[AdrenalineOD]

Last night was my first sign of trouble. Half an hour of spirited driving on the freeway when my headlights flickered and my cd player shut off and reset after a couple seconds; this happened twice. This morning drove to work, fine. Lunch break, drove out and grabbed some BK then upon parking and shutting down the motor everything DIED, electronics just completely kicked it. Battery's got a charge, wiring is solid as far as I can tell (which isn't saying much) but absolutely nothing is getting any power. Opinions, please?

 

[90mkiiisupra400hp]

Check your battery connections and grounds.

 

[AdrenalineOD]

Did, solid. I'm looking through the Haynes manual and the TSRM and here's what im thinking:
-It's not the alternator because then the battery would have no charge period right?
-I find it odd that it conked right when I shut off the car, is there a main fuse or relay that could have blown?

 

[radiod]

Don't just check and see if it feels solid, check for corrosion under the terminals. My buddies car had this happen to him and it turned out just to be a bit of corrosion under the negative terminal. Pull the grounds off and make sure there's no junk underneath them that would cause resistance, etc etc.

 

[hvyman]

Check the blue or white(the small one) on the positive terminal. It tends to look ok but really its shredded and the insulation is holding it together.

 

[AdrenalineOD]

Thanks guys, I'll do both first thing in the morning.

 

[oldsking]

Or the alternator took a dive. That happened to me one day on one of my other cars. Was driving, noticed weird flickering of my stereo system and the car started idling weird. Parked it, went to class and came back no start. So have that checked out also

 

[SupraDupra500]

Check the blue or white(the small one) on the positive terminal. It tends to look ok but really its shredded and the insulation is holding it together.

Yes, very good chance that is your problem. That happened to me.

 

[AdrenalineOD]

Looks like it might be it, i stop detecting charge bout an inch down the blue. I've never done anything even remotely electrical before so I'm taking nooby little baby steps here. After disconnecting the battery am I ok to cut off the blue insulation and see whats up? I have duct tape but no electrical tape at the moment and my nearest supply is a 2 hour walk away, will duct suffice temporarily?

 

[radiod]

No point in opening it up, better to just replace it.

 

[AdrenalineOD]

Stripped the wire, touched it to the battery and heard the most beautiful beeping noise coming from the cabin. Thanks guys, you fucking ROCK.

 

[SupraDupra500]

No point in opening it up, better to just replace it.

My thoughts exactly. I took the fuse box apart and replaced that wire with a slightly thicker gauge wire and made it a little longer than original. Best of luck.

 

[mkiiichip]

^Luckily your a parts guy. But That advise sucks.

A fuseable link should be replaced with a (you guessed it) fuseable link. It was put there for a reason and it burned out for a reason. Installing a larger gauge wire is just foolish.

 

[jetjock]

^ It doesn't get any better than that...