My 1969 chevy truck wouldnt start after it ran fine the day before?

Question

My old 1969 chevy truck had been sitting for a couple months it had a bad battery and i replaced it and it started fine (has a battery shutoff switch because of a short that drains the battery) and i drove it a couple miles to my new house and shut it off there and flipped off the battery shutoff switch. the next day i went to start it nothing happened the lights wouldnt even come on. after looking around a while i noticed that where the positive wire connected to alternator had come off and the insulator was partially burned and the boot that went over it was also charred so i had the alternator tested and it tested bad so i replaced it and checked the connections to be sure they were tight on the back of the alternator. tried to jump it to rule out the new battery and nothing happend again. what do you guys think?

Answer 1

It sounds like you have a dead short somewhere.  I would start by checking all of the positive connections, starting with the ones around the cut-off switch - and for that matter, check the cut-off switch itself.

Answer 2

Some older vehicles have an external volt regulator for the alternator/generator.  If it does not work properly the alt/gen will cook the car.  And that may be the case with internal regulators as well.  In any case the drive you took likely cooked your starter, new battery, ignition coil and anything else with a direct connection to the battery or alternator.   Or you could have been lucky and blew a fuse or many fuses.  Not all fuses are in the fuse panel in the cab.  There are often some large and odd looking fuses under the hood that have to do with ignition.  But not having power any ware sounds like a very significant fry all over.  A weekend with a test meter or a trip to a garage may be your only option.  If you do the test meter method start with something you can make work like a light give it power at its wire connectors and work your way in to the wire nest from the bulb until you find some thing.

Try this web site they have wire diagrams and a forum.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com

Answer 3

I dont know what kind of jumper cables you had if their old and have smaller wire than the most expensive ones you might try jumping it again or recharge the battery. the alternator will not actually put more charge than your using into a battery until you get up to about 50mph.

Answer 4

You need to get a voltmeter and test your cables, they are probably old.

Answer 5

Well,the first thing I would do is go DUH,and turn the battery shutoff switch back on! But if your not as dumb as me,then probably clean the battery terminals good, and try another set of jumper cables.