Posted by David Sherman on Sunday, October 10, 2004 at 10:01PM :
In Reply to: Ground wires burning up! posted by Lebowski3 on Sunday, October 10, 2004 at 9:53PM :
One guess is that the ground strap to the engine has a bad connection so when you crank the engine the cranking current ends up going through that "little" #8 wire. Trace the main ground cable by putting a voltmeter across every possible connection, such as battery post to cable clamp, cable clamp to cable itself (poke a needle through the insulation if need be) cable to ground bold connector, ground bold connector to engine block, engine block to frame, etc, etc. Put the probes in position and have somebody try to crank the engine. When not cranking, you should have zero volts across each connection. If you have voltage somewhere, that connection is bad and needs to be taken apart, cleaned, and put back together. If no voltage is obvious, do it again except have somebody try to crank the engine while you put the probes on each connection. You will probably find it quickly that way. I often find bad connections simply by attempting to crank for a while, then immediately feeling each end of each cable and strap to see if any has gotten warm. The warm one is the bad one.
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