1st, i couldnt really see what was smoking. really hard to tell in that area.
2d, its not so much the gf as it is the gf's mother....they're "helping me out" while awaiting deployment to Parris Island for recruit training....not a mother-in-law yet but might as well be one with all the aggrevation. hahahahaha (27 y.o. & being nickpicked like a 12 yo -- go figure)
I think i might have fried my meter. maybe its the fuse. but I'll see if there's anything I can do. test the ohms from block to frame right? my neg. cable is grounded on the block's stud. I'll try to run one from another stud to the frame. maybe that will help. oh, i took that neg. lead off the neg. wire and ran it to the back of the grill along side the radiator. maybe thats not really a good ground. I'll check it out. (wouldnt it have smoked regardless of whether the comp worked when i cranked it? or is it just b/c its actually under a load now?)
3d: when i did try to crank it, it never did anything. dont know if its getting gas yet or not, but i'll check the plug. course if its not spinning fast enough, it may not do anything anyway, right?
hukd

 

This doesn't jump out at me right now. As long as it is screwed into metal it should be good. (i think)

Did you connect it between the neg post and the battery and crank? Thats way to much current for a small meter.

Do you have a set of jumper cables? You could put the neg on the battery neg, and the other neg somewhere on the block and try using the rod, and see if it cranks then.

Last time mine was in the garage for a intake replacement, the only status my wife cared about, was how many red rags she could see left in the engine. lol, Once all the rags were gone, she figured I was almost finished. In the middle she was starting to defect to the shop theory. Hah I beat it though.
Really, you're almost done with the electrical part, then you just have to worry about everything else...

I'll look at the drawings again for grounding and see if anything jumps out at me.

 

If you still have that orange wire grounded...unhook it. I think we need to back up a step or two now. Now that we got the relay and comp doing what they are supposed to do....let's go from that. (or should I say, lets start from scratch) When you get in the truck and turn the key, you hear the fuel pump cycle.....so, you hit the starter and try to fire it....What happens? Does it crank fast, crank slow, crank kind of fast and then sound like it hit a wall? Let's go back to figure out what is missing here. Recheck to see if you have spark, recheck to see if you have fuel. Do you have any carb cleaner? If you have spark, you could spray some of that into the intake and see if it fires.

 

i do have tilt steering. i'll see if that helps anything.
when i tried to start it using the rod inside (after turning the key on), nothing happens. absolutely nothing! it kills the radio (which is normal), everything goes out. and when I let up on it, everything else returns. but when i arc it at the solenoid, it lags real bad.
i blew the fuse in my meter so i'll have to pick one up in the morning along with some wire connectors. then i'll ohm things out and see what happens.
speaking of wire connectors, the radiator mount as I previously mentioned was not a good ground. so i ran the wire (again, the tag end accompaning the neg. term.) down to the front cross member of the frame just below the oil pan. Will this work or do I need to have it going to the engine and one from the engine to the frame?
still no idea on the origin of the smoke. no water isnt the reason is it? wouldnt think so, but again, checking all options. stupid things like that seem to be the things that kill me.
i took some REALLY fine grit sandpaper and cleaned my terminals and the battery posts and then tightened the terminals down really well. any other ideas that I should check on?
hukd
oh, and for the person that asked, Im not a crack addict. hukdonquack is the same as hooked on quack. **duck hunter**

 

Okay according to my drawing the only orange wire from the eec should be pin49, hego ground. So that should be fine to leave grounded. Wouln't hurt to try taking it off I guess.

I was going to look at mine to see how many grounding straps there are, but it started snowing here so I didn't get a chance. I'll take a look tomorow though.

 

so....no problem with grounding the neg. terminal to the frame? do I need to put another (i say another because there is one stating at the firewall next to the wiper motor and extending down to the back of the intake bolt) strap from the block to the body?
on my way to pick up fuses, straps, etc.
hukd

 

The small wire, should be ok, the big wire will cause a problem, it needs to connect to the block.

On mine, the Neg battery cable has two wires, one 4 gauge (fat) and one 12 gauge (much smaller), The small wire connects to a post welded to the chassis right next to the battery, there are about 4 blk-lt grn wires that connect to the post too. I would say these are the eec ground wires.

The fat wire goes from the batttery neg down to the frame on the passenger side of the engine, just behind the air pump. It has a tab, with no insulation in the middle of the cable, to connect the neg wire to the frame, then it continues over to the engine block. This is the main ground for both the engine and the frame.

You need that big cable to the block to return all the juice from the starter to the battery, otherwise the electricity will try to find other paths to ground back to the battery.

The intake manifold is seperated by a gasket from the block, so it needs to connect to the chasis to be grounded. That won't ground the whole engine though, and the ground strap is more for incidental grounds, likes sensors, but not big enough to handle the cranking current.


If the start function worded before, but doesn't now. And you know the positive is good. It's mostly likely the ground.

I'm watching for your ohm readings, if those are nice and low, we could be off track. Did you try the jumper cable test yet?
Don't bother jumping the solenoid though.

 

i havent had a chance to do anything today. been WAY distracted by other peoples' needs. and I got the new fuse for the meter. Early tomorrow morning & then in the afternoon will be the chance I have to do all the Ohm tests.
The neg. cable does connect to the block. I have the smaller one connected to the frame. What else do I need to connect what to?
Test results to come later.
hukd

 

quick note:
I'll do the Ohm reading from the neg. post/term. to the block and then to the frame. And I'll try to pull of a REALLY quick V drop test. in order to do that, do I need to test just the battery or what do I put my probes on?
hukd

 

To do a voltage drop across a wire, put the pos lead on the "most pos" side of the wire(or where it grounds to the block) and put the neg lead on the "most neg" side (or the batt term).Look for minimal voltage. The reading you get will be how much you are losing thru the wire.

 

Testing that way should not blow your fuse again, I was thinking of a current test. Which is probably what blew your fuse.

The Vdrop should tell you pretty much the same thing as ohming to the neg terminal. Any voltage diff across two grounds is pretty much bad. You should not have any Vdrop across a 4 gauge wire at 12 volts. If you do, its either a) damaged, or b) not connected very well.

Could you clarify again what the routing and connection of your neg cable (both wires?) is. Thanks.

 

I agree with that. Sometimes things will only show up when you put them under a load though.

 

ok......neg terminal obviously at the neg. post. the loop end of the wire is connected at the bottom of the block on a bolt stud. the lead that comes off of the terminal (approx. 12ga wire maybe) is connected to the frame's crossmemeber. I made sure it was a good ground using the test light connected at that bolt and touched the probe to the pos. terminal...it worked.
ohm test results to come this afternoon.

(i blew the meter fuse by idiotically having the meter set on mA's and touching the pos. and neg. term's.)

hukd

 

when i set the meter to the lowest (and then the highest) Ohm setting, placed the black probe on the neg. term., and the red probe to the bolt I have in the frame crossmember, it came up with the farthest reading on the right which I believe was ZERO. then when i placed the red probe on the block (and then the water pump just for ease of access), I still got ZERO.
did i do this correctly? IF so, what does this mean and what do I need to look for now?
hukd

 

If it is zero that's good. Does the needle move frog right to left?
The scale should be marked, mine has a different set of numbers for each setting, the Ohms symbol kind of looks like up upside down horshoe, or an R.