Am new here. Am resurrection a '81 Gl Wagon EA81 4wd manual tranny.

 

Was attempting to jump the battery. Did the negative cable to the block. Cranked fine, but no fire (yet). I noticed all the guages seemed to work. Yippee. Then changed the negative cable to the battery post(probably a mistake). Then cranked again. Same thing. Gave up far a couple of days.

 

Tried again, but this time noticed the the speedo and tach (mainly) and a few other dash lights didn't light up when key was turned. Did I smoke a resistor or relay or fuse or something? Where would it be at and and is a replacement available ? Any help appreciated here.

obviously check all the fuses and fusable links...

 

could be that this last time you tried you didn't get enough of a charge to light things up... possibly because you didn't have a good connection between cars or because you're jumping it with a geo metro and there's not enough power to run both cars... (try jumping a 454 GMC with a weak import battery)

 

you may also have a grounding problem, it's common in old subies... check and clean all the wires from the battery and alternator on both ends...

 

 

--Spiffy

Thanks for the assist.

 

You were dang close on the GMC 454 for the jumper rig.

It was GMC with 350!

 

Hey also since you have one that is real close to mine, is the 4wd light supposed to be on all the time? I ask because when I sprayed down the carb and cranked she ran (turned over) for like 3 secs until the ether was gone. During that time I noticed the light was on. It is also on when you turn it to accessory right before engaging the starter.

You more than likely smoked a fusible link. I did the exact same thing on hatch. There not to hard to fabricate up.

make sure the wires at the alt. is good

on my brat, disconnect wire and everything is dead

 

use carb cleaner instead of ether

 

ceck the cap, rotor, plugs, fuel supply

Acutally it was carb cleaner (soory about that). Figured I'd kill two birds with one stone. I will pull the plugs and change the filters ( gas x 2) if the weather holds. It is getting cold up here.

 

I am going to assume that that the fusible link is behind the cluster that I'd have to pull or not?

 

Snapped the radio antenna off when putting a car cover over it. Arrrgh

 

Good news is whilst scrounging around the local graveyard, I spied a GL-10 with some primo wheels and new tires!!! Will probably pick them up so I can have a summer and winter set(w/dedicated snows).

 

Thanks for the help.

If you did not inhale, it doesn't count.