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Block Ground strap getting hot; wont start

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dendeanda

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Apr 21, 2005
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Location
Corpus Christi, TX
I have a good fully charged battery, new cables, good starter. Everything is connected where is should be. When I try to turn the blazer on, I get a bunch of clicking, like I dont have enough juice to turn the engine. Also, my braided strap bolted from the block to the firewall gets hot to the touch. My guess is a bad ground. Any ideas?
 
If its charged , and its getting power , it should turn . Now the fact the ground wire ( nice and thick , and tight , right ? , and your battery to block is tight and thick , right ? ) is hot means it may not be turning , but its TRYING to .

I would drop the starter , could be a broken starter , or bound up and needs shimmed , or the motor is broken ( seized ) and won't turn .

Also could be heat soak if you just drove it with headers .

Try the starter out of the truck if it looks fine , with jumper cables and a screwdriver to trip the solenoid .
 
Does everything else electrical work?

May sound dumb, but you don't have +/- hooked backwards do you? Ground strap shouldn't get hot.
 
dendeanda said:
I got the battery and starter tested and they all passed. I dont have headers.
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Well then , try to turn the engine with the flexplate or crank snout tool make sure it turns .

Make sure you 12 volts at the starter end of the cable .

Make sure your purple has 12 volts when you turn the key .

Damn thing could still bind in the rig if they mismatched components when rebuilding it .
 
What about the negative cable from the battery to the alternator bracket? If it isn't connected to the motor good then there will not be a good enough path to start the vehicle. That braided strap from the body to motor is only meant to ground the body to the motor. Not the other way around.
 
jhellwig said:
What about the negative cable from the battery to the alternator bracket? If it isn't connected to the motor good then there will not be a good enough path to start the vehicle. That braided strap from the body to motor is only meant to ground the body to the motor. Not the other way around.
Click to expand...

Yup. I think this is the problem. Same thing happened to me; I had a bad ground connection at the alternator bracket, and when I would try and start it all the current would go through that little ground strap...the strap started to smoke it got so hot.
 
I would always go to the lower bracket with a star washer . Better ground going to a bolt that actually goes into the block .
 
The only thing the negative cable is connected to is from the battery to the frame - no where else. Yes (which my friend did already ask me) the + and - cables are on the right terminals. I DO NOT have any wire(s) going from the battery to the alternator. Problem? Maybe someone can generically tell me what is pretty standard as far as wire paths regarding the battery, starter, and alternator, and grounds. Thats probably the problem, that I DONT have everything hooked up right. Thanks guys!
 
- Batt ground cable needs to go to the engine block, or in my case, the alternator bracket.

Clarification here:

Large terminal should go to the block/alternator bracket, small wire should go to the core support.
 
Add another cable from the frame point your at already to the block . Your just going through a painted motor mount and bolt otherwise .

If it still doesn't start....... your going to have to drop that starter and support it somehow to see if it works with your electrical OUTSIDE the motor , if that works , your going to have to make sure your engine turns to rule that out before you try shimming/exchanging starters .
 
I did notice that on the end my negative cable there is an other little wire to where it looks like a wire going to something else should connect to that. A "Y" if you will. So my negative cable should connect from the battery to the block/alt bracket AND the chassis?
 
First of all: what kind of vehicle are we talking about?

Normally, the negative cable goes to the block or a accessory bracket. Then there is usually a small wire coming from the cable on the battery end that goes to the body. Then there is a jumper to the body from the motor and one to the frame in there somewhere else. That is typical of 70's and 80's gm products and anything else should be similar.
 
Take that cable to the block then and all will be well. Clean up your other grounds while you are at it.
 
I'd take a peek at mine if I were home, but I know the - batt cable has one small wire off the main - batt cable. I *think* the small wire goes to the core support, but I know there is also a small ground wire bolted to the frame too...does that one run to the same core support bolt as the small -batt cable lead?
 
Core support is what your headlights and radiator are bolted to. There should be a few ground wires running to it at the top, just forward of where your battery sits. Your headlight wiring should ground to the same location.
 
Ok, about the core support ground wires, one of those that connects to the headlight ground bolt was getting hot and smoking and the truck wouldnt start. So I cut the m-effer off and the truck started. I really thought about not doing that too, but it started after that so I guess it was the right thing to do.

Tomorrow morning Im going to connect the neg cable to the alt bracket instead of the frame and see what happens. Might be kinda hard though because the '89 engine has the alt on the opposite side of the battery. I guess I'll have to get a long ass cable or connect it to another part of the block.
 
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