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800xl, or anyone. Here it is in short form. swapped stock motors,finally got it going(kinda), got stuck in mud in my yard on first test drive, let it set for a few days cause i couldn't get to it with my big truck untill the ground was frozen. Yesterday I went to try to start it and it turned over fine but wouldn't start. I figure it just wasn't picking up fuel, might have had 2 gal. It was facing uphill and leaned way over to the left. Anyway, getting it back inside I hit a small tree with left fender(nearly perfect by the way)not hard but it has a dent now. OK, here it is, now I have no power!!!! No headlights, dash lights, blower motor, nothing!! I can put a motor together but I'm no electrician. Battery is hot and good ground on block. Everything I think should be hot is. What the???
Need tips and advice, thanks

On the positive wire to the bat there should be the one big fat wire to the starter and then another wire coming off of it. Sounds like that wire is not hooked up or is loose somewhere down the line. Between the bat and the truck there is a 3-4 inch section with plugs that has two wires, its a fusible link. If there was a bad short that may have let go. I've had troubles on several trucks though with just the connection of that wire to the battery terminal.

Failing that, check the other end of that sucker. It should be hooked solid to the alternator, but it also makes a T and goes into the cab harness. I'm drawing a blank exactly where it ends up, I just know when my 79 cooked that wire I had to hook into it in the middle. Also, check the connections to your fuse block. A lot of power gets tapped just from a couple connectors under there, could be that is where your problem lies.

As usual, right again. It was the two short wires that com from batt. hot to the harness. Lots o' crud in pugs. Gen light still stays on, I've tried two alts. I'm on my way to est them now. If they are good, what should I look at next?

The regulator would be the next thing to look at, that and wiring I guess. The regulator is a metal box on the driver's inner fender, right up and out from the alt.

The reg you might try hooking an alt back up and running it, then wacking the reg a few times to see if it unsticks. My 79 I managed to get a few months out of a failing reg that way before finally having to replace it. I've also had trouble in the past once with a bad regulator killing alternators, so I now tend to just replace both if there is a problem, assuming I can afford it at the time of course.

Yea, I was going to try that, but the other one I have is different. The one on the truck has a round plug. The other one looks like a flat trailor light plug with 8 wires. How comon is the round do you think? Easy to get? Probably not. One alt. checked OK so that saved 30 bucks today.
THIS WILL NOT BEAT ME!!!