ok so this is how the problem started... my father decided to charge the battery on my spare ru and in the proses he some how shot the black main fusible link. needless to say i told him not to touch the car again. so replaced the link and the car would not start. took out the volt meeter and all links checked out, battery checked out, main fuse box... center row ( fuel pump wipers etc) dead... i do plan on running down the wires and following it to where ever the problem lies just hoping some one might of had this before and knew the solution.

It sounds like the charger may have been hooked up backwards. That is the only way I can think of that would blow the link.

 

Make sure the other fuses in the main panel under the hood are ok. It would help to know what model and year car you have.

If you think there is damage to the box, leet me know. I have two of them.

he did put the charger on backwards. sad. oh well. sorry i did not give the whole story like a newb. its a 88 4x4 gl wagon spfi. after finding a wire diagram i think it might be the ignition switch. it is the one thing between the link box and the center row of the fuse panel. now to find where that is:confused:

I also have a couple of ignition switches. It is located on the column at the back side of the key tumbler.

The ignition switch could be bad but I doubt it since it was most likely off when the trouble happened, thus no current would have flowed through it. Make sure the wiring is ok to the fusible link box and there are no bad connections there. If that is ok then check the connector to the ignition switch. Sometimes those terminal connections get damaged due to bad contact.

all right. the switch was toast. busted out the ole' light bulb and wire circuit and checked the back side of the switch. good power in, no power out. replaced it, still no start. then found 3 fuses popped in the center row. replaced them and he turned right over. now the charge light is coming on dim and the charge fuse is good but the bulb is reading a low amount of power to it. hmm. if it aint one thing its another.

test the alternator

You stated that the charge light has a low amount of power to it which I assume you mean to be saying there is a low amount of voltage ACROSS the bulb. If that is correct you should measure the voltage at the L lead on the alternator instead of the lamp. There should be close to battery voltage at that point while the engine is running. As you may possibly know already, the lamp is in series with the L circuit to the alternator and when the alternator is working correctly almost all the voltage provided to the circuit is dropped across the L lead and very little across the lamp. I suspect the warning lamp circuit may be ok but it is trying to tell you something is not working correctly inside the alternator so you may need to replace it. Some of the output diodes may be damaged.