Melted Battery Cables

[bmsmalley]

So the K5 has been sitting, not that long I thought in between cranks but a little while. I go to start it and immediately the starter starts to drag. OK, not enough juice to crank the 6.2L. No problem, turn the key off and hook up the charger for a little while. Well, I turn off the key and the starter is still engaged, turning slowly away. I have to disconnect the positive and the negative cable to make it quit. Cables are hot. I charge up the batteries, re hook all the cables and yes it spins fast enough to to start but it is not starting. I turn the key off and he keeps going but this time the battery cables melt.

What is going on here. I replaced the cables with new ones and try again and the same thing happens. Am I missing something here. It ran fine the last time I cranked it.

 

[Fordum]

Quick guess, your starter has a short in it, and when the solenoid fired, the extra load welded the contacts.

Low voltage will cause a HUGE increase in starter current. That might have been enough to weld the contacts, but when you got full voltage the starter should have gone back to drawing normal current.
The contacts would have still been stuck, but the wires should not have melted.

I would check between the battery and the starter for any shorts in the positive cable, plus check the hookup at the starter for a short.
Small wrench dropped down, etc.
Plus, something against the solenoid could cause it to stay on and be partially shorted to ground.

If all that is good, odds are its the starter.

 

[bmsmalley]

Thanks for the info Fordum !! I will pull the starter off tonight get it checked out.

 

[fouronereason]

I've had that happen once before, not a 6.2l but an engine none the less and it turned out to be the starter.

 

[diesel4me]

I've had the two screws holding the solenoid to the starter nose back off and fall out,letting it cock sideways and prevent the plunger inside from returning to the normal position on my old K5's a few times..

 

[Blue85]

This is what starters on 6.2s like to do. They think it's funny when the rig is completely packed with all your stuff, you're due somewhere else by morning and it's Sunday afternoon.

The nice thing about the 6.2 is that if you do get it started, you can just keep it idling overnight or as long as you need to until you get where you're going. But I can't explain why it would spin and not start.

 

[bigred81]

Change the starter solenoid the low voltage from the weak batteries welded the contacts together. When replacing the starter use the 1989 and newer starter it is the high torque starter.