AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAnd, there goes elk season

[DoubleJ]

Yesterday, it was so cold the van wouldn't start.  We had a tournament we HAD to leave for right now.  I pulled the battery from the truck and threw it in the van and put the van battery in the truck and off we went.  Today, I went to put the van battery on the charger and put the truck battery where it goes.  I see that, in the 5am no light situation I had, I placed the battery in the truck opposite of how it should have been.  I didn't hook it up but the positive wires were resting on the negative post and vice versa.  Now, even hooked up correctly, the truck won't start.

Here's what I have:

1992 F150
lights work
dash lights and gauges work
fuel pump is working
Radio doesn't work
when I turn the key to start, nothing.  Not even a click.  Pure silence.

What the hell did I do?  If I can't get it figured out soon, my late elk will be gone.

[snowpack]

check fuses and diodes.  You can get a pack of miscellaneous fuses from WM for a couple $.

[TONTO]

 Sounds like the starter cylinoid, might get lucky and just blew a fuse though.

[Solohunter84]

I live in shelton.  I am tagged out for elk. If you need you can borrow my old tanker of a truck.  You just gotta pay gas haha and hope she makes it to where you need to go.  No promises but it hasn't broke down on me... yet.  PM if needed

[adamR]

Without troubleshooting I would guess you blew a fuse

[ANDERWAGON]

Doublej, does the voltage gauge come up when you turn the key on?

Check the starter solenoid on the fender. If its not bad there are a couple 2 or 3 size 10 wires right there that I would check. I believe one of those is a fusible link. It has a larger round bell at the terminal. Feel it, flex it and see if it's burnt.

That's the best advise I can give you with out sticking it with a test light or meter?

PM me with your number and I can coach you through a few more test.

[Rooster1981]

Check the fusible link. It will be inline from the battery to the ignition . Its a safe guard for you ignition just for instances, like putting in your battery backwards 

[DoubleJ]

Solonoid.  Hot wired it and it fires right up.  Cleaning posts tomorrow and then replacing if it's more than just dirt. Still no radio though and that fuse is fine.  Probably blew the actual deck itself with my luck.  Still no heat either but that's because I bypassed the broken heater core months ago and never got to fixing it    Procrastination is a mutha sometimes

[coachcw]

sounds like a fusible link at the starter solenoid

[Solohunter84]

glad ya got it fixed.  LMK if ya need a rig tho

[DoubleJ]

Update:  Alternator too.  Crap.

[sebek556]

well damn it doublej if you were closer the one off this bronco that I tore apart would probably work

[lokidog]

Update:  Alternator too.  Crap.

I'm no auto mechanic, but that doesn't make sense.   

[ICEMAN]

I live in shelton.  I am tagged out for elk. If you need you can borrow my old tanker of a truck.  You just gotta pay gas haha and hope she makes it to where you need to go.  No promises but it hasn't broke down on me... yet.  PM if needed

Wow, heck of an offer.

[DoubleJ]

Update:  Alternator too.  Crap.

I'm no auto mechanic, but that doesn't make sense.   

It's either the alternator or the voltage regulator.  I multimetered the battery and it's putting out 12 amps.  I started the truck and turned on the fan and lights and it went to 10.2 amps.  I then had the wife hold the pedal down at 3000 rpms, enough to engage the alternator and it didn't move from 10.2 amps when it should have gone to about 14 as the alternator charged the battery.  Either the alternator is gone or the voltage regulator isn't telling the alternator to charge the battery.  I stopped before I read to pull the battery wire off the battery to see if the alternator kept the engine running.  That's tomorrow.