Ok, so, here is what ive done thus far. in this order. New starter solenoid, new starter, all new cables (starter+ground+posotive).

What is happening. Truck sonstantly trying to crank, melting wires.

How it happened.

So, mid header install the starter was dropped, apparently enough to take it out of the game, this was not discovered until after everything was all buttoned up and we tried to start the truck. We tried to start it and only got a slight electical humming noise, we then saw some smoke coming from the solenoid, and so we replaced the solenoid. We then tried again after everything was all hooked up and all hell broke loose. We saw the same smoke coming from the solenoid, only this time it was glowing red, we quickly turned the key to the off position, however the glow remained, and the negative battery cable began to smoke, i grabbed a pair of pliers and grabbed the cable to pull it from the battery, where i expected to meet resistance i did not, the cable simply pulled away, reminicent to a fresh slice of pizza off a still hot pie.

At this point we decided to replace the starter, as well as all of the cables, and picked up a new battery. Replaced the starter and all the cables, then went to hook up the battery, very carefully, we hooked up negative first, then went to put on posotive, as soon as it even gets close to the terminal it starts arcing.

I then disconnected the ignition switch, fearing it somehow may be welded together on the inside. With this removed i can hook the battery up, but when i do absolutely nothing works, no lights, no radio no nothing.

uhh, thoughts?

please help.

 

Here you can see where arcing occured

 

here you can see the header clearance, i do not believe this is touching, but if it were, would this cause an electrical problem?

 

here you can see the solenoid, originally the unit was hooked up with the starter wire and the posotive cable swapped, i have seen on wire diagrams where this is wrong, so i have made it correct here, this is clearly not burroned up, and is a mess, but this is how i have the wires routed.

 

Why do you have the yellow wires on the starter connection? If those yellow wires are feeding something they will not be on, except when the key is turned to engage the starter. The yellow wires should be on the left hand stud (where you have the red coming from the battery) If you have the original style ignition switch, with the round pin type connectors, you may have fried the ignition switch or the wires/connections on the back of it. Do you still have the points system and use the resistor wire?

 

Ok not to clear on your post?
In the picture you have the a bunch of wires on the solenoid (I) terminal that don't be long on it.

That Yellow wire hooks onto to the Main Battery side of the solenoid the Red cable is hooked to..
orich

 

This is the way the wires were when i got the truck, so that is how i hooked them back up (except for the main battery and starter wire, which i have switched. I have ordered a new ignition switch as well as a new starter solenoid as i fear i may have fried the new one as well, better safe than sorry @ 15$ a pop. I would like to clean up the wiring on this truck as much as possible, but wiring is definitely my weakest point when it comes to backyard mechanics.

I am running the petronix Ignitor and their blaster coil, i have summit racing cap+rotor, and moroso 8mm wires, all new spark plugs.

 

I will be fixing this after work tommorow, this is the way the truck was hooked up when i got it, it ran really well the whole time i had it, i just now started having these issues. I have found a few wiring diagrams, but they are difficult for me to read.

 

Don't know if this will help
Power only goes to the large black cable when you engage starter so you won't get 12volts to the vehicle power source, That's why the Yellow is on the RED Battery cable.

I don't l know how it would start & run tho.

As you can see how the wire hook up solenoid.
Orich

 

that makes sense, i will switch those wires over so it is just the starter cable on that side, i need to follow all those other wires back and find out where they go.

 

Sometimes what seems like a so simple little thing to fix or remove as we take it apart only later becomes so foggy in are mines eye we start to reassemble something only goes wrong or it gets put together backwards, only to cause some smoking & melted wires.

In todays world most everyone has a camera phone and it's best to just snap a picture of a before pictures so we have that picture for reference if an when needed.
Orich

 

Black starter cable looks way to close to the Solenoid to fender apron screw !

 

Yes, when i put it all back together tonight this will be nice and Tidy.

 

Subscribed.

 

So i printed out the wiring diagram, and color coded it with markers so it was easier for me to read, then laminated it at my office haha. Armed with that, and a new solenoid and ignition switch i went in to get the job done, and that's exactly what happened, once i had which wires were which figured out, everything hooked up the way it was supposed to, and the truck started right up. I snapped this pic of the wiring so you guys know what i was dealing with, clearly this has been chopped up in the past.