What would cause a loss of electrical power to radio, clock, and interior lights?

Thanks for answering my question in 'military' - hope the facts enlightened you, and sorry if you're thin skinned on those matters. However, as one who can be helpful in many ways....

If the fuses are ok, then the fault is prior to the fuse panel. i.e. between the battery and the fuse panel, probably via key-switch or relays - I don't have a schematic, so can't tell you.

If you still have headlights and some electricals still operating, battery is charging, then the alternator is fine. If you have a voltmeter, put it across the battery and rev the engine. If the volts go up from say, 12.5v to 13.5v on a rev, the alt is Ok and charging. (13.8v typical)

90% chance you will have a wire chaffed through to the body, or a clamp. In particular, the wire that provides power to the fuse for the items mentioned. Check the main wiring loom, entry point through the firewall to the engine bay, look under around retaining clamps or anything in contact with the wiring. Even wires resting lightly on the body panel will eventually chaff through.

If the burnout of that wire hasn't melted through the insulation of the other wires in the loom, you can just replace that wire with a new one. You could cheat by taking an entire new wire, connected to the fuse panel fuse, and then run that to the main power feed off accessories. Just bypass the lot - cheap and effective, but poor practice unless an emergency.

Good luck, and I like Americans, enjoyed working there through the 80's and 90's, but you're govt is something else.... not that ours is much better!

*After thought... Ok, so my prev Q was a bit inflammatory. I've deleted it, and abuse report accepted.

2 points anyway :)

well the chances are they are fed off the same circuit. Some manufacturers do this and you may find that the clock and interior light etc are all fed off one fuse. Now if the fuse is ok and the burning smell has gone, the cables may have parted company from what they are touching and stopped burning out. but this is rare. Have a sniff around the areas in question ie. the radio, light and clock and if so remove and check for burn out. My guess if its a ford, the radio/cd player will have decided to cook your favourite CD. but have a crawl around and see if you can narrow it down. if you can even try removing the fuse box, as they are sometimes near the pedals and the wiring can rub and short on the pedal arms. Also , chack for secondary fuses in the curcuit as radios of today have a blade fuse on the rear, but i understand this will not solve the fact the clock etc are off too

Sounds bad. I would have thought check the fuses. Are you sure you checked all of the fuses? There are often times in newer cars more than one fuse box. Be sure you check under the dash and under the hood for up to 3-4 seperate fuse boxes. Beyond that, sounds like it could have been a computer. $$orry

smells err i mean sounds like fried wires should cost a pretty penny to fix sorry