86 Camry electrical problem

Hi!
I'm hoping someone can save me here. Here's what's up:

1986 camry 4-cyl auto. Trying to teach my roomie how to do car maintenance, I forgot to mention "disconnect the battery". He managed to bridge from the #2 spark plug to the top wire connection on the alternator with the socket wrench, and it had enough juice to make smoke appear from somewhere near the battery.

Since then, turning the key to "ON" only gets me the "charge battery" light on the dash. Headlights and emergency lights work, but none of the internals work (dash, radio, fans, cabin lights, etc). Turning the key gets the 2 relays in the fusebox to click, but I don't get any juice to my starter motor.

I've checked all the fuses (including the circuit breakers in the left and right side panels inside), the battery is OK, the starter is OK, and I just spent all afternoon pulling apart the entire wiring harness between the alternator, starter, battery, and fusebox, and there's no damage to the wires there at all (that I can see). The fusebox seems OK, I can't see any damage to it, or where the wires connect to the underside. I have no idea what smoked, but I'm starting to think it was either water from the battery, or crap on one of the connectors.

Anyways, I'm out of ideas as to what could be wrong. So, does anyone have any ideas on what else could be causing me not to start?

Thanks very much,
Cerv

Hi Cervantes, welcome to the forum. I hope you will like it here. I better leave the response to this to Hobbist since he is a real expert with cars and can certainly help you better than I can

sounds like a wire burnt off a connection could have damaged coil pack and ignition module smoke means something burnt hard to say at this piont from here fine circuit that operates items that arnt working all one circuit wire from key switch is one of the wires to alternator check everything connected to alt. refer to manual diagram.the first thing i would do remove the alternator and have it tested if bad replace regulator if external. dash lights on some cars go through voltage regulator. have mention numerious times to disconnect battery for this exact reason your roomie know has serious trouble.without being their to look my self its going to be hard to explain how to because of the nature of the failure is not normal so your on your own.

Post edited by: hobbist, at: 2008/05/05 00:51




after though down on the starter their should be fusible links in side wiring harness their bumbs you can feel inside the tape some are round or just long peice of wire some square cermaic bocks.your roomie smoke might be a peice of tape not all fuses are in the fuse boxes.he might have smoke starter selinoid their were i would start on the starter area.

Post edited by: hobbist, at: 2008/05/05 13:15

Post edited by: hobbist, at: 2008/05/05 13:22

Thanks Hobbist, I hope Cervantes will take advantage of your knowledge

Hi;
I tracked down the problem to a length of (what I hope was) fusible wire on the secondary connection to my positive battery terminal (not the thick wire, the thinner one that connects right next to the terminal).
After (temporarily) bypassing that, I'm able to get juice to the car. It sputtered to a start the first time I turned it over, but now it's just cranking the starter and not catching. I have more hunting to do, hopefully I can track down what else is screwed up.
Thanks for the reply.
Cerv