I've been dealing with balky cold starts the lifetime of this car. Lately, they've been a real hassle, but what has always saved me is plugging in the block heater for an hour.

Except this morning. I got up early to plug in the block heater and went out after sleeping late to no start. It was as though the block heater didn't work! But of COURSE it works, it always works! Fixed the plug more firmly, waited. No go. Then did a ohm meter test on ends of block heater plug -- showed it was drawing power (seeing the needle move is the ONLY thing I understand about this test so any questions here will make me confused).

NO START THIS MORNING. Cranked the battery on down. Frustrated. So crawled under the car because even though I hear SOME noises, I am not sure I am hearing block heater noises. Followed the block heater cord a ways --

Ok, long story short -- the block end of my power cord is frayed and exposed. It's rubbing something else, can't see what, about a half inch before it goes into the orange square nut. I assume it's shorting and not coming on, because nothing anywhere that I can touch is remotely warm.

WHAT TO DO HERE. I can put a heat lamp on everything today and maybe get started but what am I looking at? Is this why my block heater is not coming on? I suppose I need to replace the power cord to the block heater entirely, right? Would this hard short have led to any other electrical problems? I think it's pretty much a self-contained unit powered by the plug, so I wouldn't expect it to have damaged any other mechanisms, right?

Bear in mind I am a dumb girl. What do I do now?

__________________
1980 300SD 220,xxx
somewhere, nc