So I went and washed my car, then drove to the bank, then went to drive home when I noticed none of my guages worked but the speedo, and my battery light and my overheat exhaust light was on. Why? What did I do? Thanks

 

all fuses and fusible links seems fine according to my little fuse/continuity checker.

 

What's your voltage gauge say? Better yet, use an actual volt meter...

Check at the main output (Thick wire held on by a nut) of the alternator. Use the alternator case as a ground...

You should have somewhere near 14 volts with the car running.

I think you toasted the alternator and it thinks the engine isn't running and is keeping the gauge cluter in Lamp Test mode.

 

check the battery voltage with a volt meter. Just put the one the ground end on the car "It doesnt matter" and the other end on the battery.

If the car is running off of the battery the gauges and stuff would still work if the car is running.

If the alternator was bad it wouldnt be able to charge the battery while running.



Check behind the gauge cluster and see if its all there. I hope you didnt melt any wires......

 

No volt meter, but I do have a test light.

I have very little power to the back of the alt, and even to the starter as well as the fusible links on the drivers side strut tower. Also it is not starting now, nothing at the key and no headlights, nothing. Where and what is the main fuse that every thing should go through?

Didn't see anything crispy underneath the dash, didn't look to hard though.

I did NOT wash the engine just the car, and all gauges went to zero(left), alt, fuel, oil, temp, and tach.

 

The main fusible link is the center one, The top and bottom ones are for the headlights. The meter fuse fuse under the dash powers the dash lights.

 

I have a very dim light on the power side of the fusible link, as well as the other side with the fuse in. All the wiring diagrams I am looking at show nothing between the battery and the fusible link. When I simply put the test light on the battery to check power it is bright, but when I check ground it is dim. I am so very confused.

On a side note it hasn't been above freezing since I washed it and no garage, think anything could have frozen that shouldn't of?

 

Sounds like you need to start checking/cleaning battery cables and thier connections.

 

You're right! I just checked them real quick the other day, and they seemed clean and tight. So I loosened them off a little and gave them a good tap and sure enough thing light up. Thanks