ok so here is whats up...about a week ago i was polishing my air cleaner when i bumped my wiring harness and the car went up in smoke. a cloud of smoke came from down below where the starter is. well i have lsot all power to the car...no lights no buzzer on the inside and no starting and a shorted out battery. so i replace the wires, i replace the stater and i replace the battery. and i get it all together and stat her up...she is running really good in my driveway for about an hour so i figure everything is fine. well so i dive it down the street and everything shorts out again. Dead starter, burnt wires, no power in anything, and a shorted out battery....Any body got any ideas????
A suggestion Hey thrice, im no electrical expert, but it sounds like if your starter is burnt out, sumthin must have happened that ALL possible current availible went through. Therefore, id think the culpret wire is a really big one. not sure what it is, but ithink it might be wise for you to install a fusible link past the alternator or past the starter even, before ur wiring harness begins. Starters arent as difficult to replace as the entire wiring harness. If the short happens again, it might save ur new wiring harness. Did the short destroy your systems too or did it just stop the power getting to them? If it just stopped the power, id check the fuse box and see which fuse went out, that might be a good place to start. Hope that helps, just my two cents. Azeem
Did you replace the fuseable link? The starter solinoid wires have fusable links at the end, which melt when there is a short. It's supposed to melt so a fire doesn't start. You probably have a short somewhere, most likely not in the area the wires burned up. The short just lets too much power go through the wires, and they burn up at the weakest spot (weak not meaning old or anything, just meaning the spot that can take the least amount of electricity). We'll need more info. What year/model is the car? What wiring harness did you hit (the one on the manifold/valve cover that goes to the distributor)? Exactly which wires burnt and were replaced? First, I'd make sure the cables from the battery are have good insulation and don't touch anything - I once had one short against the exhaust manifold. The cable was touching, the insulation melted, and it shorted out, melting the fusable battery clamp and burning the cable. The cable can short against anything metal - engine, frame, tranny lines, etc. Make sure the wires on the starter and soliniod are not touching anything except the posts they are supposed to (and are not able to touch anything else or each other). Follow those wires to make sure they aren't bare and shorting anywhere. You could also make sure there is no short in the starter, solinoid, distributor, or alternator.
... welll yes my wires are fusable links. And the wires that i bumped were the ones on the intake manifold. The wires keep burning out near the starter. The wire that keeps going out is one of the wires that goes off of the main stud on the starter....the one that the battery cable connects too. whats odd is that nothing looks like it is touching anything and i have traced my whires and i cant find the short. Also i for some reason it is not popping any fuses in my fuse box...my fuse links keep melting.
what year and make of car are we talking about? the big (10 and 12 gauge) red wires that run from the starter post and make their way across the motor (one might also split off to the alternator or voltage regulator) to the fusebox are protected from melting by the fused links. if one of those wires gets shorted along the way, the fused link will blow/smoke/burnout whatever. you probably have an intermittant short in one of the larger wires and it would might be near where you "moved" them. find a slit or knicked jacket tape it up, replace the fused link and you should be good to go. keep us posted on your results.
It's not too strange that the fuses aren't blowing - some things aren't fused under the dash. Now, if I knew what they were, I could give you an idea of what to check, lol. Of course, it could be something fused under the dash, but the short occurs before the circuit enters the passenger compartment. Also, is it possible that the wires "move" when the car is running? Maybe from bouncing around one will short. Do as Yuk said. You might want to pull the wires on the intake off and look them over well. Follow the wires and see if they are shorting where they go (some will go to the alternator, some to the distributor, some to the voltage regulator. You might have to pull the wrapping off the wires (the ones on the top of the engine) to see if they are shorting each other.
yea well i found about 10 places where wires look like the could have been shorting out in my car. all of which were on to of th manifold. i rewired most of the power leads. i put it back together, tapped it up and she is running again. gosh what a pain in the ass this has been...thanks guys...ill write back if she shorts out again.
Did you rewire everything on the intake? I mean, since you were there, why not? LOL. Also, if the wires there were that bad, it might be a good idea to check the rest of the wiring. Glad you got it working - now you know not to polish your air cleaner.
