Electrical problem in water

[GruntHunter]

I'm driving an '87 K5 Blazer, no lift and 31x12.50-15 ProComp MudTerrains. My hunting lease has a water hole that can be knee deep most of the year, that I need to drive through. It never used to be a problem. I had been able to drive through and at times put a bow wave almost over the hood. It's only about 20-30ft accross so it's an in/out thing. Last year I drove through and the engine died before I could get all the way through. Fortunately only the rear wheels and exhaust pipe were still in the water. When I tried to restart it all I could get at best was a click. After about 10-15 min whatever got wet seemed to dry off enough where I was finally able to get it restarted. I've looked everywhere to find an exposed wire and the only thing I can see is the battery wire going to the starter.

Question: If the starter wire gets wet will it short out and 'kill' everything? If it will, how do these guys drive through rivers without getting shorted out and dieing? This has happened twice on me and now I'm afraid to drive through it anymore, especially since I'm alone a lot and it's 6 miles from a main road.

Any suggestions?

 

[ryan22re]

spray some water on the starter and see what happens.

that will tell you if the starter has wet problems.

ryan

 

[Geargrinder]

My 'Burb had this same problem before I got it (I know the PO) and the cure ended up being a new fusable-link. It was on the fire wall on the driver side, and every time it got wet it would kill off the electrical in the truck. It's the 1st time I had heard of such a thing, but hey, it would be a cheep fix if that's your'e problem.

 

[GruntHunter]

Hmmmm .... didn't know anything about a fusable-link. I'll have to figure out what it looks like and just where it is.

Tnx