Help! Electrical Problem

[gr8scott]

Where is the 'ideal' place for me to attach the ground strap and/or negative battery terminal?

Best place for the neg battery terminal is the engine mount bolt right behind and below the alternator.
Ground strap from engine block to frame and from frame to firewall.
I personally haven't added any ground straps yet, gotta get around to that...

 

[Broncobowsher]

Where is the 'ideal' place for me to attach the ground strap and/or negative battery terminal?

With a rear mounted battery, I would say the best place would be the transmission to transfer case adaptor bolt. The starter is grounded to the transmission, so the closest to the transmission the better. There is typically 5 bolts holding the transmission to the transfercase adaptor, I would use one of those.

I would not use the starter mounting ear. there are only 2 bolts holding the starter to the bellhousing. Adding a cable under a bolt will degrade the calmping ability of that bolt. Don't want to compromise half the mounting bolts for the starter (on of two) 1 out of 5 is better odds. If you can find an empty bolt hole, that is even better.

 

[csangster]

If you didn't replace all of your main battery cables at the time you did the re-wire anyway, now's the time I'd say.

Since it's in the cab with you, I assume all the battery cables were new though. Correct?
Like the others said, but especially with that much distance between the battery and starter, there is no such thing as overkill. Use the biggest gauge you can get, and run the main ground directly to the engine block. Closer to the starter the better, but anywhere on the block is better than nothing.

For the body ground(s), you can get away with much smaller wire, and attach it to a convenient spot near the battery or wherever you want. As said, the rest of the accessories don't use near as much all together as the starter does all by itself.

Have fun. And, unlike most Summer well-wishes, may your day not end with fireworks!

Paul

I went to the parts store and bought the components to make the negative battery cable. I bought all the cable, solder pellets, flux, heatshrink, and terminals to build the negative battery cable from the battery to the starter mount bolt. Since there also needs to be a ground cable from the engine to the body, I decided to make the blade terminal big enough so both the battery cable and a ground cable can solder into that one point.

Do you guys see any problem with me running my ground cable from a shared terminal with the negative cable and then putting the other side to the body? (near the starter solenoid is the plan, if not under it).

As for concern over thread engagement on the starter; I will closely review how much thread engagement I am getting with the starter bolt before I make that the attach point. But if I have anywhere over 4 full threads of engagement, that will be more than enough to handle the designed pre-load of the screw.

Please advise on my above idea about my negative battery cable and ground cable combination.

Cheers,
Chris

 

[gr8scott]

Do you guys see any problem with me running my ground cable from a shared terminal with the negative cable and then putting the other side to the body? (near the starter solenoid is the plan, if not under it).

Please advise on my above idea about my negative battery cable and ground cable combination.

Cheers,
Chris

That will work fine.

 

[csangster]

That will work fine.

Thank you.

 

[Rustytruck]

Before you burn up another cable check the your motor isnt frozen. get a breaker bar and socket and put the truck in neutral and block the tires and put the socket on the damper and turn the motor by hand to verify it isnt frozen in place. 4- 5 years is a long time.
If the motor isnt frozen I would check your new starter. It takes alot of amps to melt a battery cable it has to be going some place. I suspect ther is something stuck.
as for the ground wire to the block use the threaded hole in the block that the factory put there its above the pan rail near the # 2 spark plug.

 

[csangster]

Before you burn up another cable check the your motor isnt frozen. get a breaker bar and socket and put the truck in neutral and block the tires and put the socket on the damper and turn the motor by hand to verify it isnt frozen in place. 4- 5 years is a long time.
If the motor isnt frozen I would check your new starter. It takes alot of amps to melt a battery cable it has to be going some place. I suspect ther is something stuck.
as for the ground wire to the block use the threaded hole in the block that the factory put there its above the pan rail near the # 2 spark plug.

the first thing I did before I tried to start the truck was turn the engine over by hand, the engine isn't stuck.

I'll get my grounds set up correct first then if that doesn't work I'll look at the starter more closely.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[DirtDonk]

...Since there also needs to be a ground cable from the engine to the body, I decided to make the blade terminal big enough so both the battery cable and a ground cable can solder into that one point.

Do you guys see any problem with me running my ground cable from a shared terminal with the negative cable and then putting the other side to the body? (near the starter solenoid is the plan, if not under it).

I'm I'm reading you right, you're wanting to solder both wires into the same end? If so, it's no problem as long as you're not planning to use two of the same gauge cable. if so, that sounds like just too much trouble. And not necessary.
If you mean just to use a 10 or, at the most, an 8 gauge wire as your body ground, then I say go for it.

The battery-to-body ground does not need to be the same size as the main battery-to-engine and battery-to-starter cables. It won't actually hurt anything to be oversized of course, but it's not necessary.
Same for the engine-to-body.
The most common body ground from the battery is a 10 gauge wire. The most common ground from the engine to the body on American vehicles is a braided wire.
Not sure what the "gauge equivalent" of that braid is, but it's probably in that same 8 to 10 gauge neighborhood. Just a guess though.

So if you're going to solder both into the same socket, just do the one large wire from the battery to the grounding point, and the second, smaller wire up to the bolt on the body.
And yes, doing it this way would seem to almost eliminate the need for the usual battery-to-body wire since you're, in effect, doing that with your common ground cable at the engine. However, it can't hurt to keep one at the battery and this one at the engine-to-battery interface.
And it's pretty simple to just add one short one from the main battery terminal straight to the nearest body panel. While you're making all this new stuff up, it would just make sense.
An extra ground can't hurt anyway. Even if it's not strictly necessary.

Paul

 

[csangster]

I'm I'm reading you right, you're wanting to solder both wires into the same end? If so, it's no problem as long as you're not planning to use two of the same gauge cable. if so, that sounds like just too much trouble. And not necessary.
If you mean just to use a 10 or, at the most, an 8 gauge wire as your body ground, then I say go for it.

The battery-to-body ground does not need to be the same size as the main battery-to-engine and battery-to-starter cables. It won't actually hurt anything to be oversized of course, but it's not necessary.
Same for the engine-to-body.
The most common body ground from the battery is a 10 gauge wire. The most common ground from the engine to the body on American vehicles is a braided wire.
Not sure what the "gauge equivalent" of that braid is, but it's probably in that same 8 to 10 gauge neighborhood. Just a guess though.

So if you're going to solder both into the same socket, just do the one large wire from the battery to the grounding point, and the second, smaller wire up to the bolt on the body.
And yes, doing it this way would seem to almost eliminate the need for the usual battery-to-body wire since you're, in effect, doing that with your common ground cable at the engine. However, it can't hurt to keep one at the battery and this one at the engine-to-battery interface.
And it's pretty simple to just add one short one from the main battery terminal straight to the nearest body panel. While you're making all this new stuff up, it would just make sense.
An extra ground can't hurt anyway. Even if it's not strictly necessary.

Paul

Okay, haven't worked on this in a bit but decided to go back to square one yesterday and today.

All this fancy cable business that I am doing is just confusing the issue in my pea-brain.

So I went to the parts store and bought the original battery cables to put the battery back into the engine compartment.

I set the battery on the passenger inner fender just to put it as close to the engine as I could.

I hooked the positive battery cable (15" long) to the positive side of the solenoid.

I already had the cable that runs from the starter side of the solenoid running down to the starter motor.

I hooked up the negative battery cable to the lower starter motor mount bolt.

I bought a ground strap and ran it from the exhaust manifold bolt on the passenger side to a sheetmetal screw on the passenger inner fender. At the body I made sure the contact was to bare shiny metal.

I tried to start the truck, the solenoid 'clicked' and then cable running from the solenoid to the starter started smoking and was wicked hot.

I'm trying to make this as stock-like as possible and I am still having these problems.

The starter motor is brand new, the battery is fully charged. Can this be a solenoid problem?

Help.

Thanks,
Chris