Low Power To All Electrical Accessories…. Need help

[danpro]

So the other day I had the door panel off of my truck, (94 sierra 1500) and I was too lazy to disconnect the battery thinking it'll be fine… well I touched the wires for the door locks and they made a spark. Ever since then, I have had low power to everything electrical, windows barely make it halfway up before quitting, radio wont turn on, lights randomly staying on with little power, and brake lights being very low power, so low that I had to check to see that the bulbs weren't burnt out. Also, when I put on the turn signal, it makes a very fast clicking noise that I can feel in the plug that is on the convenience centre by the emergency brake pedal. The voltage gauge then buries itself and all the other gauges die out also. Ive checked all the grounds and everything is plugged in and is clean so I am completely stuck at whats happened. Any help would be greatly appreciated thanks.

 

[Big D]

did you go through the fuse panels? check for any that are blown?

 

[danpro]

did you go through the fuse panels? check for any that are blown?

Nothing is blown in the fuse panel which is what has me so confused! Quite the frustration was built up today while trying to figure this out.

 

[Ruger_556]

Volt drop your ground cables just for the hell of it... That's the only thing that all those have in common IIRC

 

[danpro]

Volt drop your ground cables just for the hell of it... That's the only thing that all those have in common IIRC

sorry i'm kind of new to working on my own car haha, what exactly is volt dropping?

 

[Ruger_556]

sorry i'm kind of new to working on my own car haha, what exactly is volt dropping?

Essentially measuring the difference in voltage between two place. On the volt setting with a multimeter place your leads on either side of what you want to test and load the circuit. The reading is the amount of voltage lost. Anything over 0.5v is cause for suspicion.

I'd check ground straps first and then go from there. Something somewhere is carrying a load that it shouldn't.

 

[Ruger_556]

Check the voltage at the fuse panel (ground lead hooked to the battery not the sheet metal in the cab). If that's close to 12v move on to a load (Pick any... Let's say brake lights). If you don't have something close to 0v on the ground pin then the problem is in the ground side (If you have for example 3.4v on the ground then that means you're losing that much through the ground).

 

[danpro]

Check the voltage at the fuse panel (ground lead hooked to the battery not the sheet metal in the cab). If that's close to 12v move on to a load (Pick any... Let's say brake lights). If you don't have something close to 0v on the ground pin then the problem is in the ground side (If you have for example 3.4v on the ground then that means you're losing that much through the ground).

ahh ok ill do that next time I'm working on it and see if that helps, thanks