My car is being gayer than yours

[meatish]

Alright i am stumped. I just changed my cars battery and now when i turn the key to the accesories position no electronics come on. Not the radio, the clock, no check lights, nothing. When i start the car it has a somewhat hard time starting but it still turns over, however even after it is on no electronics come on. The tach doesn't even come on. It all turns on after i rev it once. after that first rev by me everything clicks on, but it still sounds kinda weak. Someone please help.

thanks
tyler

[Yoshi]

did u check the alternator?

BTW, we frown upon the whole sexual orientation bashing thing here.

[Andrew Bohan]

at least your car turns on. my car is being gayer than your car

[mooboy]

Yeah check the alt.

[95Blue240sx]

check the fuese!

[aznpoopy]

awesome thread title.

mmm... check grounds and electrical connections? my dash and accessory stuff wouldn't come on one time b/c my negative battery cable was all corroded and stuff. jiggled it a bit and it comes on fine.

sounds like your car is having a hard time getting power thru the wires. see if those connections and grounds are rusty and corroded.

[wootwoot]

your car takes it up the tail pipe. did you maybe take the positive cable off prior to the negative and let it touch something metal? that could've blown an assload of fuses. check the parallel fuses, relays and the fuses. the thing that i dont buy reguarding the connectors is that they happend to stop working all at the same time. but i'd check that too anyway just for good measure

[Loofee95SE]

MAke sure u put -to-, and +to+. it may sound like i'm an A-hole but u can never look over simple stuff like that don't ask how i know this!! . then all the terminal hot and ground. Bad ground is like rain when u just drove 5 hour to the beach. C

[ibanezxguy]

thats a short or bad fuse somewhere for the power to the cab, did ya get a few sparks when ya took the old battery out or when ya put the new battery in?

[meatish]

I just talked to a friend at Jim Wolf Tech. and he said this sounds like a problem that is unique to my car. Thanks for all your advice, from what im hearing it sounds like either a grounding problem or a fuse. I dont think it's a gounding problem, as i switched between two negative cables, one with more grounds, and the battery terminal is new, as are the cable clamps. I guess I will check the fuses tomorrow morning before school. Also, that -/- +/+ sounds like it's worth investigation.. my new battery doesn't have labeled terminals, so maybe it's in backwards (? is this a possibility?). Ill post an update tomorrow. Cya, thanks.

[meatish]

Update!
Well this morning I first looked at the battery. It is indeed installed correctly. Then i checked all of my grounds. Those all check out. I pulled several fuses, they were all fine. Then I started the car, and it is behaving the same way; it has trouble starting up initially. None of the accessories come on when the key is in the primary position, not even power seatbelts or check lamps. Then once the engine gets started, you have to rev it to about 1.5K rpm's for everything to turn on. And now, there is a an interesting new development: heavy shaking at idle/low engine speeds. After checking it out, i am almost definitely sure it is from a dead cylinder. So, with the car running, i pulled some of the spark plug wires. With both #4 and #2's wires pulled, there is no effect on the engine, leaving me to believe that they are not getting power, therefore causing shaking. I drove it to a familiar mechanic, and he at first thought a BHG was causing pressure loss, but after explaining the electrical problems, he said it sounds like the alternator and/or distributor are acting up. He then gave a confused look as he thought about it more and said, i duno bring it in monday.. ill run some checks. Ideas anyone? What is wrong with my engine? Thanks.
Tyler