Van won't start will not crank over

[wmmalett]

Here's what happened..... Fuel pump took a crap but before I realized it I ran the battery dead. Pulled the battery out to charge it. Had window down and instead of putting battery back in to roll the window up my buddy hooked the battery charger up to the battery leads to roll the window up(didn't know at the time). Charged the battery replaced the fuel pump and put recharged battery in van. Everything works but when I turn the ignition to start it nothing. All idiot lights light up and gages work but will not crank over. Swapped battery with a known good one and same thing. Called buddy and he informed me what he did. What kind of damage has been done? What do I need to do to rectify this situation.

Thanks,
Bill

[Big_kid]

First thing I'd try is putting it in neutral and hit the key. It's a quick and easy test of the neutral safety switch (I once helped push a '77 Monte Carlo a mile down the road due to this). If that doesn't give any results, look at the fusible links on the starter, one may be blown. If this is where your trouble is, it's just a matter of splicing in a replacement.

Good luck, keep us posted, and welcome aboard!

[paintdrying]

Ah. I may be something as simple as a fuse. Or not. You need to see where power is going to. Is the fuel pump priming? Is the starter getting power? Get yourself a 12 volt test light and see what fuses are getting power. Post back

[wmmalett]

Thanks. I'll give it a try tomorrow and post my results.

[RECox286]

I can't say fer sure, but I doubt if hooking a charger to the cables without having a battery would do any damage at all. As long as there is resistance in a circuit, it should matter not

if there were no batteries, or many batteries. The most that could happen is if there were to be a dead short to ground, in which case there would be zero resistance, and of course the wire

and any thing in front of the short, becomes the fuse, which then is destroyed by unbridled amperage. It is easy enough to use a 12v lightbulb type tester to see if there has been damage

to a fuseable link. But if the only thing used was the window switch to move the motor, the motor has plenty of resistance, and the charger would only be putting 14v into the system, just like

the alternator does when running. Lets "assume" that the charger clips hopefully were hooked to the truck thusly: pos/pos and neg/neg.

Bob

[wmmalett]

I was told that the charger clips were hooked up correctly but he wasn't sure if the charger was switched to boost or not. I tried the neutral thing and still no crank, but I did notice a click that coincided with the turn of the ignition switch. This click noise came from the fuse box area but I was unable to pinpoint exactly where. Was unable to crawl under the van today to start my search for the fuseable links. What exactly do they look like and where are they located? I guess my question is: If the ignition switch wasn't turned far enough to engage the starter is there actually any power going there when the ignition is turned to the first indent in the clockwise position?

Thanks Again for the Help,
Bill

[Big_kid]

If the ignition switch wasn't turned far enough to engage the starter is there actually any power going there
Yes. The starter is connected directly to the battery, and the fusible links come off that.





I found this pic searching Google images for fusible link pics. http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?t=215835 I wanted to give credit where it is due, someone took a lot of time to do a nice writeup on fusible link replacement. It's a Buick forum, but the design is the same.