AMLHenchy

I'm working on a 1998 Z-24 (2.4L), when I received it I was told; "My son was driving down the highway and it just stopped. It had just been to a mechanic for a tune up about 6 months prior." When I talked to the son he told me that all the transmission fluid had sprayed out of it because the transmission plug came out." Not only did the "transmission plug" not come out, neither did the transmission fluid; nor any other fluid. I did a complete radiator flush on it, oil change and transmission flush; just to be on the safe side and checked the brake fluid. I wanted to make sure that it had not lost any fluids, which it had not.

I received the car as a "I can't do anything with it, if you can fix it you can have it for your teenager" type thing. I towed it to my house because it wouldn't start.

The original battery was dieing, when the ignition key was turned to on the dash lights would come on but the windows would roll up very slowly; so I bought a new battery and at the same time I had the starter bench tested and it tested okay. Reinstalled the starter and installed the new battery; now there is no power to anything. Not even the annoying "ding" when you open the car door with the keys in it. I have checked the "small" fuses, and not knowing how long they've been in the car I changed all of them and checked through the repair manual to make sure none were missing.

Reading through the forum most of the early morning I see that sometimes the negative battery cable not being grounded properly can be a problem so I plan on checking that in the morning; but does anyone know of anything else that would cause this problem. I even took the battery back and had it tested, it passed but the guy at the shop said "just in case" and exchanged it for a new one.

I can't tell you if the fuel pump is priming because I have no power to anything; same with the anti-theft system or any other system without power.

My next guess would be battery cables, I plan on following them and checking with a meter and checking for shorts.

I saw that the ignition switch had a recall and I plan on checking to see if it was replaced, but if it was the ignition switch gone bad would it cause the entire electrical system not to work?

I am fresh out of ideas, so any help would be greatly appreciated. The repair manual has nothing under troubleshooting for "the new battery I just installed must have shorted out the entire electrical system because nothing works now"; don't know why I can't be the only one that has ever had this problem...I hope.

mudmaniac

Just a thought, but try jumping the starter selinoid and see if it cranks, also check for power going into the main power distribution box under the hood.

AMLHenchy

Wow, I totally feel like an idiot, because I was told that it had just had a tune up 6 months prior to me receiving it I never checked the spark plugs. My husband went out yesterday because I asked him for a second set of eyes to see what I was missing. He came in and asked me if I had the firing order in the repair manual. I gave it to him, less than 10 minutes later he had it fired up and running. When I talked to my friend she told me she wouldn't be surprised if her son had taken the spark plug wires off thinking he was checking something, of course the wires were put on in numeric order instead of firing order, and thank goodness the car's brain realized something was wrong and just shut the vehicle down. So beside the fact that it sat for so long it now works and I'm redoing all the fluids.

Now does anyone have any ideas on what kind of "glue" is the best to use to put the convertible glass back in? Right now it's hanging by a thread.

Thanks for ideas, I almost knew it was something stupid I was missing.