Hello,

I've been chasing down multiple problems on my '85 Bronco , it's a 351W with a 4 barrel carb.

I replaced the starter and starter solenoid today as well as the battery, gave it a few quick taps of gas and then it started right up..it was running just fine(though with my foot on the gas as the choke is the next item to be replaced and I needed to gas it so it wouldn't stall) when I let off the gas a bit too much and it stalled out. I went to restart and looked under the hood and noticed that the negative battery cable end was connected to the post but that it had broken off/melted from the two cables connected to it, part of the connector seemed as though it had melted off the cable like solder.

I know I need a new cable(one end of this one I believe went to a bolt on the starter and the other one was attached right to the metal in front of the battery). I don't want to just throw parts at this though, was it likely just a bad cable? A bad ground somewhere else? A bad alternator? A starter run amok? It hadn't seemed loose or on the verge of breaking before so I'm wondering if it didn't overheat to the point of melting apart..but why it would have overheated I don't know how to figure out. Any pointers would be much appreciated.

 

If the battery cable was bad, you would have had difficulty starting it, or it would start some times and not others, etc. It, as you said, bolts to the starter, the frame, and then the battery and a bad cable just makes it have a difficult time completing the circuit.

If it got so hot that it melted, there was some serious current going through that cable that shouldn't have. Are you sure it melted and didn't just break off? (I'm not doubting you, just curious.)

Can you get a picture of the carnage? It may be easier to diagnose when seeing what the aftermath looks like.

 

OK,

I checked out the cable just now and replaced the post terminal connector, I can now turn on the headlights, etc..but I think whatever was going on drained my battery completely as I couldn't get it to turn over(or even try, no click from the starter solenoid either). I didn't have another vehicle to even try to jump it with available so I couldn't go that route tonight.

The cable itself definitely melted, it was completely melted on the bottom, I can't take a pic but it was completely destroyed. 1 of the ground wires connected to the post connector went right to the starter , the starter was new clean metal The other cable went to the spot right in front of the battery(not frame so to speak but it was metal..) and I had pulled that off to inspect it while troubleshooting other things yesterday and it looked pretty good. Could an alternator run amok have done this?

In the past 3 days I've changed the starter solenoid, battery, and starter (twice..the 1st time the store gave me a bad one) ...I'm running out of funds with this vehicle quickly unfortunately so any advice anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated.

 

That's a symptom of a dead short from the POSITIVE side of the battery to ground.

I had to stand back and watch the charge cable on an old Cadi of mine melt down when a ratchet slipped and wedged between the positive alternator post and the number five spark plug... the copper dripping was kinda cool but the burning thermoplastic made the eyes water.

Make absolutely certain that there is no serious short to the frame from any of the POSITIVE cables. 600 CCA or more DC from a battery will make short (no pun intended) work of a piece of #6 copper wire and usually take any component in it's path as well like a solenoid or starter.

 

Yeah, sorry. In my post I was meaning that as a diagnosis of a bad negative battery cable. If a negative cable is bad, it would have issues starting, etc. I forgot to be specific since it was the one being addressed (going down to the starter.)

I agree with greystreak, a short somewhere in the positive side is going to do that. I haven't had quite the experience he described, but I was tightening the negative battery cable and just *touched* my ratchet onto the positive side. Knocked the ratchet a few feet away and put a 1/4" deep groove into the handle. Lots of power there.

 

Thanks for your replies guys, I had a buddy work with me today and we made some progress. We found a bunch of bad wire connections on the positive side of things that could have been shorting out. I also had some corrosion (or I think it was paint overspray from when the remanufacturer painted it) on the old starter's copper fitting for getting power and I cleaned that off.

I pulled the starter out to test it..running it on my buddies' battery it did nothing but once I took it to Advanced Auto it worked on their tester, I cleaned that copper fitting so hopefully it will work in my truck now. I'm going to install the new starter and negative battery cable tommorow morning and hopefully it'l fire up.

 

That's great to hear. Nothing sucks worse than having problems like that and finding nothing. At least in cases like these, if those things you found don't solve the problem, you know you at least made things better and most likely will prevent (or solve) other problems that you didn't know about.

Hopefully that all does the trick though!

 

Ok, so in the early morning 19 degree weather I climbed under the truck and reinstalled the starter...no go. Spoke with my buddy further...he agrees the starter is apparently bad, whatever wiring problems were going on had fried it; it worked in a nice heated environment in the store after it had spent 2 hours in a heater area at work but after a night in the truck in the cold then being installed it was again completely useless even jumped right off the battery.

I'm buying a different brand of starter from a different store tommorow(this was my 3rd one from advanced..doubt they would give me another one at this point) and giving it one more try before I sell the Bronco...parked on the street and got 120 bucks in tickets for it already , can't afford a tow and can't afford it sitting there for anymore tickets

 

Quick update for you folks who helped me out on this one. After much struggling and fighting I got this truck to start and run today...still need to track down a few electrical issues but by and large I'm positive about it. Thanks for the help.