Help installing a starter - something shorted

[ekajkrats]

Yeah, so the job looked super simple on my 72 blazer. I got the new starter in place of the old, hooked the electrical back up, went to put the battery cables back on, and that's where it went wrong.

Hooked up the negative first and then the positive and then there was a spark. Now nothing has power. Battery is good.

What did I short and how do I fix it? Here's to hoping it is straightforward.

Thanks in advance.

-Jacob

 

[ryoken]

fusable link on the one pos wire is probably fried.. and somehow your pos stuff at the starter is grounded out.. either the lug is turned and contacting the starter body or similar..

the fusable link will a be burned section of wire usually about 6" above the starter, not on the wire to the battery..

 

[ekajkrats]

Thanks ryoken, checking now. My starter only had two wires coming off of it, so it has to be the small one.

 

[tRustyK5]

Where was the spark from? Did you hook up the starter wrong, battery backwards? Positive lead to the starter touching ground?

It sounds like whatever you did a fusible link will need replacing.

 

[ekajkrats]

I thought the spark was right up by the battery when i connected the positive.

 

[ekajkrats]

So I am not seeing a fusible link.

Off the starter i have the cable to the battery and another cable that goes up behind the engine until it joins a bunch of other cables that are tabes/bound together.

Off the battery, I am not seeing a fusable link either. I will get a couple pictures of what i see...one minute.

Thanks again.

 

[ekajkrats]

here is the mess of wires off the positive, didn't see a fusible link here, but not exactly sure what one looks like:

here is the starter:

here is the red wire coming up behind the engine and going into the bundle above the valve cover:

 

[ekajkrats]

also, didn't do the battery backwards, but could have done the starter wrong. could be the small cable on the wrong post?

 

[ashman]

a fusible link looks just like a regular wire, only it's designed to break just like a fuse. It is one of the wires coming off of your + terminal.

 

[ryoken]

you should have more than 2 wires at the starter.. the bat cable to the large lug, another 10 gauge on the same large stud.. that 10 gauge should have the fusable link..than a smaller "trigger" wire that goes to one of the 2 smaller posts.. the "s" terminal...


sheesh, that pos bat post is a total disaster... amazing what happens to rigs over the yrs... and people wonder why i tell em not to keep adding wires to the pos post.. plus, you really should change that bat terminal.. those ones that the wire get's biolted down to are basically a hack, get ya home kinda thing... not great for long term...

but anyway... see if ya can get a close up of the wires attached to the starter..

 

[ashman]

also, didn't do the battery backwards, but could have done the starter wrong. could be the small cable on the wrong post?

Been awhile since I hooked one up wrong, but yeah, I think if the small wire is on the wrong post you'll short it.

 

[ekajkrats]

here it is:

 

[ryoken]

that looks fine...


but someone has been hillbilly engineering that rig for awhile... one of those red wires on your bat was originally down at the starter on the same big post, more than likely that one with the yellow butt connector.....

your gonna need a test light or meter at this point and start finding where the power is not getting thru... check all your fuses...

 

[ekajkrats]

I was looking at these. Tested the hot wire (one of the reds on each) with the voltmeter and it looked good. Should one or more of the other wires also be hot if they are working properly?

 

[ryoken]

those are relays... and tho i have no clue why they are there (it's not factory) they shouldn't have anything to do with the truck not having power...

do the headlights work?

you need to see if the fusebox is getting power... it's usually being fed by the wire thats missing from your starter, which i'm guessing is up at the battery... it often feeds a junction block on the firewall, similar to that one in the pic of your bat post...

 

[chalet2506]

I was looking at these. Tested the hot wire (one of the reds on each) with the voltmeter and it looked good. Should one or more of the other wires also be hot if they are working properly?

Looks like you have an LMC headlight harness upgrade and those are the Jap relays that come with it. If the smoke was coming from between the battery and core support dig back into the wire loom for the fusible link. On stock trucks there is 2 hot wires with the links right there going back across the front of the truck to the fuse block. Somebody who didn't know what they were doing might have stripped them back a little and add some wire to the end between it and the battery.

 

[ekajkrats]

Dang, you guys were a life saver tonight! Thank you so much.

So, it ended up being the mess at the battery terminal. I put in a new wire from the starter to the terminal, installed a new terminal, and had to tighten up the cable from the battery terminal to the wall.

Need to still put in a fusible link. But I was able to make it home the 80 miles, in large part to you guys.

Chalet, that's spot on, thanks for explaining what those are. Now I need to read up on why they are used.

Here is what started the whole ordeal:

Is there something other than being an old part that would cause the solenoid to break apart from the starter?

 

[ashman]

glad you got it figured out.

Is there something other than being an old part that would cause the solenoid to break apart from the starter?

The only things I can think of (other than just being old and worn out) are maybe the bolts were loose and letting the starter move a bit and smack the solenoid into the block, or maybe someone cracked it by dropping it when it was installed before.

 

[ekajkrats]

Thanks Ash. At least I know how this one is installed

Here is my battery terminal, finally cleaned up a bit:

 

[ryoken]

there ya go, much cleaner...