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1987 - 1996 F150 & Larger F-Series Trucks 1987 - 1996 Ford F-150, F-250, F-350 and larger pickups - including the 1997 heavy-duty F250/F350+ trucks

burning up ground wires

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Old May 27, 2010 | 09:26 PM
  #1  
wadeiss's Avatar
wadeiss
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burning up ground wires

hey all, I am new to this site.
I have a problem with my 1989 f150 5.0 efi truck.

The truck runs fine but every few days if you shut it off, it will not start. It will not even click.....nothing. It can not be jumped or hot wired. The battery is new, the alternator is new, the battery wires are new. The first time it happened I replaced the 2 small wires from the neg battery to the wireing harness, and then it started right up. Today it would not start but it smelled like electrical burning and was smoking. I found that a wire from the harness to the chasis was fried. It was a black and green wire over infront of the battery. I twisted the 2 burned ends back together and it started up. I limped it home and replaced the wire.

My question is why would this wire burn up? Where does the negative battery lead go....to the frame or the engine block? Right now it is going to the chasis.

Please help me.


Bill
 
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Old May 27, 2010 | 09:32 PM
  #2  
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jplinville
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From: Ohio
Originally Posted by wadeiss
hey all, I am new to this site.
I have a problem with my 1989 f150 5.0 efi truck.

The truck runs fine but every few days if you shut it off, it will not start. It will not even click.....nothing. It can not be jumped or hot wired. The battery is new, the alternator is new, the battery wires are new. The first time it happened I replaced the 2 small wires from the neg battery to the wireing harness, and then it started right up. Today it would not start but it smelled like electrical burning and was smoking. I found that a wire from the harness to the chasis was fried. It was a black and green wire over infront of the battery. I twisted the 2 burned ends back together and it started up. I limped it home and replaced the wire.



My question is why would this wire burn up? Where does the negative battery lead go....to the frame or the engine block? Right now it is going to the chasis.

Please help me.


Bill
It's supposed to go to both the frame and engine.
 
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Old May 27, 2010 | 10:23 PM
  #3  
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rla2005
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X2 frame and engine.
 
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Old May 28, 2010 | 01:24 AM
  #4  
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rainbowATF
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Joined: Oct 2003
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From: Elyria, Ohio
Are you talking about the smaller gauge (10 gauge?) wire that goes to the fender. If that burnt, it is carrying too much of the load and the large wires to the engine and frame are probably making poor contact or are so corroded and are in need of replacement as stated by above posters.
 
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