help! I let all the smoke out!

(I think everyone's going to tell me a bad ground, but I wanted to run this by everyone before I get into it).


This past weekend I went to start the 66 up for a trip around the block. The starter would barely turn the engine over. Dead batter, right? So I hooked up the charger and waited. After it showed "fully charge" I tried again, still nothing. Bad cell, right?

After another few hours, I tried starting again, this time by pushing on the starter relay button under the hood. I then noticed smoke coming from the heater box, and throttle cable!

On a hunch, I checked the battery with a volt meter and it showed a good 12.5V, so it's a good battery after all. I think it's a bad ground. Should I start at the battery ground? The engine appears to be grounded well to the body (very little resistance when I put the meter on the engine mount and the frame). Would running a wire from a starter bolt back to the battery be a good way to check?

TIA!

Sounds like a classic case of the engine not being grounded, but you checked that.......! I would try hooking a jumper cable from the engine to the frame (or ground post on the battery) and see if that's it for sure. After that, I'd wait for the guys who know what they're talking about to chime in!

Steve: The smoke coming from the throttle cable and heater would indicate that the engine is not grounded well and is finding a ground via those means instead of the ground strap. Chances are that the ground strap is not making a good connection with the chassis and/or engine. Perhaps removal of the ground strap, cleaning, lubrication and reinstallation would correct the problem. Using an ohmmeter to determine this is not always accurate as the resistances are so small. You could test in the manner you describe or simply running a heavy wire from engine to a good chassis ground. AL Bradley

For sure remove, clean, check the ground from the battery to the body. Check the lug/cable connection. It appears that the starter current is taking a different path than the one it's supposed to. Also, remove, check, and clean the engine ground. I found a neighbor's starting problem on his mower last night; the ground to the body was loose and arcing. He had replaced $250 worth of stuff trying to find a ground problem.

Thanks guys. I'm sure it's as you all suggested, and I thought: a bad ground. It's wierd that for the past couple of months it's been fine, then suddenly it's like this.

The other thing that happened was last week when I was doing a final tune up. The car ran great for about 20 minutes, then slowly started dieing, almost like the throttle screw was being unscrewed. I noticed that the metal fuel line was resting against the engine and was extremely hot! I'm thinking it had a vapour lock. I can't tell now since I'm having battery problems.

All the cables are brand new, but so is the rock hard paint on the engine. I'll do a little more sanding away of the paint to get a better ground.

This is consistent with a ground as well, problems with the ignition not getting the input voltage it should.

Check the ground strap from the transmission to it's crossmember.

There never was one on mine!! Only on the left motor mount!! It does look tired!! Maybe I should invest another 10 bucks!! :o) You only need one, right?????

2 is better

and 10 are even better????

I think 18 is a nice round number

22????

however many Alida lets you have

Damn!! Don't tell her!! :o)