ground to body blown wire all power lost

[Bennett Sierra]

I changed my timing chain,water pump,and starter on 87 caprice i tried to start and the ground wire from the battery to the body burned off the body and their is no power what so ever. Any thought of reason?

 

[Ribbedroof]

Shorted fusible link at starter

 

[CopperNick]

Since the ground lead at the battery and the connections at the starter solenoid should have been the only electrical terminals you disconnected, Check your wires at the starter. As mentioned above one of the fusible links could have committed suicide but it is possible that the + power wire from the battery ended up touching something it shouldn't have during the install and as soon as you re-attached the negative cable you created an active circuit and it fried the cable. When you did attach the neg lead, did you get any kind of serious spark from the wire terminal to the post on the battery? It is also possible that your new starter either was faulty to begin with or, if you transferred the solenoid from your old starter to the new one, that it didn't get aligned correctly which caused the internal plunger in the solenoid to jam in a position which created a short. That must have been one serious case of wire fricassee as both the pos and neg cables on the battery are 4ga or heavier and slagging either one of them down could have easily set fire to other of your electrical subsystems.


Nick

 

[oldsmobile joe]

Been here, done this. Check your battery to engine ground cable connection. I suspect your main ground cable is not connected properly at the engine. When this happens, the small ground wire from the battery to body tries to take the load at engine startup but can't handle. So it overheats and melts.
Remember, a tight connection is not always a good connection. Clean both the battery ground wire as well as the where it mounts.

 

[64nailhead]

I'd bet oldsmobile joe is spot on. If the main ground from battery to engine is connected well, then replace it because it's probably corroded somewhere in the middle of it. Also, this is one of the times that the saying 'you can't have too many grounds' applies.

 

[Tony1968]

Corroded ground wires are a nightmare
I'd replace them all and clean mounting areas very good with flap disc or whatever to get clean metal and then spray a good paint over the whole thing to avoid corrosion in future

 

[Bennett Sierra]

Been here, done this. Check your battery to engine ground cable connection. I suspect your main ground cable is not connected properly at the engine. When this happens, the small ground wire from the battery to body tries to take the load at engine startup but can't handle. So it overheats and melts.
Remember, a tight connection is not always a good connection. Clean both the battery ground wire as well as the where it mounts.

your input was the spot on for the negative burn out to the body. The main negative cable switched to the alternator bracket needed some paint removed for a solid contact and that solved the burn out appreciate your experience and shared info.

 

[oldsmobile joe]

your input was the spot on for the negative burn out to the body. The main negative cable switched to the alternator bracket needed some paint removed for a solid contact and that solved the burn out appreciate your experience and shared info.

Your most welcome