No electricity in car!!

[braverichard]

Hi all,

Today I decided to pull the instrument cluster from my 300SD to put white face gauges on, paint the needles, change the bulbs, rebuild the rheostat -- basically, to freshen up the cluster. Something came up and I had to drop my neighbor off at a place located about 40 miles from home. Since the 300SD was the car easily accessible in the driveway, I just thought that driving 80 miles without it being registered on my odometer wasn't that big of a deal. So I drove off without the cluster. I dropped my neighbor off and on my way back, I decided to stop and re-fuel. I did so and then I decided to stop again to look at a car for sale by the street. After that, I went back to my car and it wouldn't start. At this time, I had electricity in the car, the lights and CD player were working.

I called my friend who gave me a jump. My car started, however I still had no electricity in the car. The dome light comes up but it is very dim. The headlights wouldn't work and neither would the heater, though I could hear clicks each time I tried to start those accessories up. I just got home five minutes ago. I turned off the engine and now it won't come back on.

Anyone have any idea of what happened here? My friend was guessing that perhaps by driving without the instrument panel, I was running just on my battery and the alternator wasn't recharging it to produce electricity. OR he said my alternator could just have gone bad. Any ideas before I take the car to the mechanic tomorrow? Thanks again!!