Battery shorting killed all power

[Matt K.]

I have a 1975 slant six Dart I was doing work on. I attached the negative terminal and while I was tightening the positive terminal my wrench hit the metal battery bracket, shorting out. Now my car has no power anywhere. Everything in the engine bay is okay; battery, starter relay, fusible links, fuses, and bulkhead. I have continuity from the battery to the bulkhead. Something is shorted somewhere and I am lost with the factory electrical drawings. Please help.

 

[Phreakish]

I have a 1975 slant six Dart I was doing work on. I attached the negative terminal and while I was tightening the positive terminal my wrench hit the metal battery bracket, shorting out. Now my car has no power anywhere. Everything in the engine bay is okay; battery, starter relay, fusible links, fuses, and bulkhead. I have continuity from the battery to the bulkhead. Something is shorted somewhere and I am lost with the factory electrical drawings. Please help.

A short between the positive terminal of the battery to ground won't typically do much if it's quick. If it's not quick, the negative battery wire or terminal or smaller ground wire can smoke.
If you leave the battery connected you can use a test light to probe for power where it should be. With the battery disconnected you can use an ohmeter to check continuity between the positive battery wire terminal and wherever power should be.
Do any other electrical accessories work? If it's just the starter, I'd check the neutral safety circuit and the connections to the starter relay to start. Easy to have accidentally unplugged something or broken a wire, or bumped something.

 

[67Dart273]

A little late for suggestions/ lectures, but this is EXACTLY why you attach the neg/ ground cable LAST

What you describe makes no sense, unless it burned the post/ clamp connection. suggestion above is good. I often use a test lamp instead of a multimeter, as it is quicker and more forgiving. "Follow the cables. Ground the lamp to somewhere on the engine, and probe the alternator big stud where the black wire goes, the starter relay "big stud," the starter "big stud," and the battery POS post THE POST and then the battery clamp. All that should be "hot."

Try removing the clamps and re-clean the clamps and posts.

 

[Mattax]

Its hard to follow when you write killed power but everything in the engine bay is OK.
Tell us how you determined things are OK, and how you determined there is power at the bulkhead.

The 1975 main power circuit is a little different than other years.

If you are using a voltmeter or test light, check for voltage at the bbattery positive and the alternator output stud.
That will indicate if there is a break in the main feed between the battery and alternator.

At the bulkhead, if you can, check if there is power at positions J, then T, and Z.

You may not be able to easily because in my experience these terminals have rubber seal on the engine side connector.

 

[Matt K.]

I checked for voltage and found that the middle firewall connector was not connected correctly. I fiddled around with it and got my continuity. I'll try not to fry my car again. Thank you all for your help.

I have no idea why that happened there were no signs of burns or smell of burning plastic nor did I touch it when I was working on it.

 

[Phreakish]

I checked for voltage and found that the middle firewall connector was not connected correctly. I fiddled around with it and got my continuity. I'll try not to fry my car again. Thank you all for your help.

I have no idea why that happened there were no signs of burns or smell of burning plastic nor did I touch it when I was working on it.

Coincidences happen.
As @67Dart273 said, attach the ground/neg last to avoid a repeat.

 

[67Dart273]

I checked for voltage and found that the middle firewall connector was not connected correctly. I fiddled around with it and got my continuity. I'll try not to fry my car again. Thank you all for your help.

I have no idea why that happened there were no signs of burns or smell of burning plastic nor did I touch it when I was working on it.

You really need to stop trying to troubleshoot using continuity, at least most of the time. Shooting for power, when there is lack of, is MUCH safer for the test equipment, and avoids somewhat leading you down the wrong road. This is in part, due to things like current causing poor connections to open. In other words you might show continuity, when under power, the bad connection fizzles open and stops working.

 

[RustyRatRod]

A little late for suggestions/ lectures, but this is EXACTLY why you attach the neg/ ground cable LAST

Yeah, I had that and some other stuff all typed out and then I just said "screw it". lol

 

[RustyRatRod]

I checked for voltage and found that the middle firewall connector was not connected correctly. I fiddled around with it and got my continuity. I'll try not to fry my car again. Thank you all for your help.

I have no idea why that happened there were no signs of burns or smell of burning plastic nor did I touch it when I was working on it.

The firewall connectors on these cars are notorious for working loose, building up resistance, melting and even have caused fires. My suggestion would be to unplug the firewall connector(s) and clean the heck out of all of the brass connectors inside the plastic housings. It sounds like you had a poor connection to begin with and when you arced power to ground, lost that connection completely. I would clean ALL those connectors thoroughly.

 

[Scody21]

This is also why we have short box wrenches in the tool box. Doing this to a modern car is bad news bears.