I know the wiring harness and everything is rough I want to get power back to the vehicle till I start replacing everything.
Starter solenoid
See that small hole just below the starter relay in your picture? That’s the original body ground location. Do you currently have a ground dedicated to a body panel from the battery?
Two things on the battery side of the starter relay.
What is that wire connector that looks like it is just slipped under the battery cable? It’s either orange, or has been wrapped in orange?
Is that connector bolted to the body, or is it just slipped under there? If it’s bolted, that’s not a good place for the battery cable to be rubbing.
And just under the battery cable, you can see a small bare connector. What wire is on that, and is it touching the body?
Carefully loosen the nut and rotate the wires up so you can see what’s going on. Or just remove them completely and check them out.
This could easily be part of the problem.
When I say carefully, sometimes the outer nut can be loosened by itself, but it’s usually a good practice to put a second wrench on the inner hex so that you don’t twist the shaft out if the outer nut is stuck slightly.
This can be done when you’re replacing the battery cable with a new one.
Should I wrap and stow these loose wires?
Yes. Those are your old voltage, regulator, wires, and connector.
Looks like the yellow wire is already capped off, which is good. Or they could’ve been left in the plastic connector and been perfectly safe.
If you’re never planning to have to go back to an externally regulated alternator, then that entire connector can be removed.
Personally, I don’t like to cut those wires off completely because they can be utilized in the future for something.
The yellow wire has constant power, and the red green with red stripe wire has switched power.
Might come in handy someday.
Then again, they look so rough and compromised, that it wouldn’t hurt to just cut them off and tape them up safely out of the way so they don’t touch anything.
Connector following or at least feels like one plan is to cut open tape and investigate.
Might not be a bad idea. But I think it can wait for now. Unless the large black wire goes through there?
Connectors into the firewall.
That one connector should never be angled like that. Looks like it’s partially disconnected and has been under a lot of tension over its life.
The opening allows moisture and other gunk to get in there. If you haven’t already (and why not?) you should remove those connectors and check inside. Battery disconnected, of course
The same black wire that I’m always on about passes through both of them. If one connector is compromised, that could kill power to the whole vehicle.
Fuse box on opposite side of firewall. I tested resistance and all fuses were good (Satisfactory/SAT)
That’s good, but not good enough. I would still pull them and clean them and try to scrape the contact points clean.
Again, battery disconnected.
And do it soon, because even though it’s not your problem currently, it’s not helping anything to be in that condition.
Well, obviously, it’s not supposed to look like that! The green with black ACC wire is severely compromised and has been modified with a different ring connector already. The original one was molded on and might even have been a fusible link.
At the very least, loosen than center or not and rotate the wires so they are not in extreme tension like it appears they are.
Replace the ring connector and re-crimp it if it needs it. And I would think it does.
Even though this would also not kill power to the whole vehicle, losing that connection at the black with green striped wire would kill power to all of your ignition switch controlled accessories. Not the ignition system or charging system, but certainly the heater, radio and turn signals and such.
