1995 Chevy Astro Chevy Astro Weird Electical Problem

I have the *exact* same problem. Check fuse block and no power to left bank only, everything else has power. Wiring and connections are perfect/clean. I replaced ECM and Prom. No effect. Van was perfect before this happened. Did you ever find out what the problem was?

The problem area is the connections under the hood behind the battery. There you will find wires connected to a circuit. Inside that circuit the wires are burnt/not connecting. What I did, was totally bypass that stupid little circuit, and I hard wired all the wires directly to one another by soldering them and then taping them. That connector circuit box is just that; its just a middle connection box between wires. It is totally safe to just bypass the box and connect the wires directly.

The box has a high tendency to short out the terminals inside. You will see what I mean when you take it apart.

Let me know if you need a picture.

First off. THANK YOU! I was about to pull the whole dash out to get to the fuse block. I would really appreciate a picture if it isn't too much trouble because behind the battery I have an accessory line to a bolted center terminal and a cluster of wires bundled together with tape plugged into the back of the power block, but before I rip this apart I'd *really* like to make sure I'm working on the what you're describing and not making things worse by pulling apart the wrong thing because I don't see a box where the wires plug in. This darn thing has some things like a 94 and some things like a 96 and some things that are totally different than either. THANK YOU again! BTW, when this all works out and gets fixed I'm going to make a video to put up on utube to help out all the dozens of other frustrated Astro owners that I'm sure have the same problem cropping up in different ways that could use the help. And I definitely want to credit you for coming up with the solutuion!

Hello,

Oh no worries, I will work on getting a picture updated this weekend. And yes, from the sounds of it, you found the correct terminal box I'm referring to. Its got bolted center terminal.

I will get a picture going here this weekend. Bare with me.

Thanks,
Brad

So I ended up pulling out the Fuse Block and checking all the connections. Then I decided to pull the four wire connector that plugs into the main accessory cable that bolts to the back of what I thought was the fuse block which is actually just a front end wiring isolation plate between the engine bay and the inside of the van. I must have pulled that connector off a dozen times and never noticed that one of the leads had actually melted breaking the connection to the "C" lead which powers the dead left bank on the fuse block. I cut that one line and connected it directly to the positive terminal of the battery using the terminal extender (this is a conversion van) and viola! Everything worked. I can't figure why that connection would heat up and melt before the fuse blew other than it was arcing because it wasn't a good connection. The van has 150k mi on it so it must have just eventually worked it's way lose from vibration. I can see how this connector could cause all kinds of weird stuff as different connector terminals intermittenly start to lose solid connection. Thank you again for your help! I'm going to pay it forward by creating a video to put up that explains all the things I've found out about the Astro's electrical quirks to save others from the same grief of tracking down seamingly mysterious symptoms.