After doing some A/C work on my '85 T type, I put a jumper wire on the cycle switch to charge it. When finished, I pulled the j-wire and it seemed to have a bad cycle switch. So, I put the j-wire back on to get by until the next day. About 10 mins. down the road the car died and it wouldn't start. I checked all the fuses and none were blown. I then used my test light and found that the 20amp taillghts, 20amp cig/clk,5amp inst,and 2 batt hots at the bottom center were the only things hot. I took the j-wire and used it to jump from one of the batt hots to one of the ign. plugs on the left side of the panel. That got me home, but I can't find the problem. Is there a fuseable link blown? If so, where is it? What else could it be? PLEASE HELP...
Check the fusable links by the starter, from what I understand they feed most of the rest of the car.
There are two fuseable link wires at the starter motor. One is for the headlight circut and the other for everything else. Check there first. By jumping the cycle switch the only thing that should have happened is the acculmator would freeze up, high side pressure would sky rocket and compressor lock up. It may not be related to what you did but I would advise not to do it again. Check the cowl connector under the hood behind the fuse panel. The compressor overload may have caused loss of conection to other circuts.
"I put a jumper wire on the cycle switch to charge it."
I'm just curious as to why you needed to do that? Unless I'm thinking of something else, that switch you jumped is a safety switch that keeps the compressor from operating until it the system has a certain amount of pressure in it. I've been told this is to make sure there is enough coolant to move the oil around in the system so the compressor doesn't lock up. The system should have started working once you got it up to the right pressure. If that was veriifed as high enough then I would think the switch or possible a sensor somewhere, was bad.
Scott, The cycle switch releases the compressor at aprox 28 psi on the low side. This keeps the accumlator from freezing up. Sometimes it's necessary to jump it to get a recharge going but the car should never be driven this way. With a full charge it would lock up compressor and with a low freon condition it will damage the compressor internally.