Two week old owner of a '95 Protege LX automatic transmission. Aside from the CEL on, car was running fine up until tonight. Turned key to start car, heard one brief click and then nothing. No crank, lights, radio, wipers etc. Used multimeter to test voltage on battery which showed good (12.8 v). Off the negative battery cable there's an unattached yellow wire...have no idea if this should be connected to something. Popped open fuse box and noticed main 80A fuse looked cracked.

Not being familiar with this car and being an electrical dunce, I'm looking for some places to look. Any ideas?

 

start with replacing the cracked fuse, see if it blows again.

EricTheCarGuy on YouTube does a good tutorial on finding shorts.