Ground wire gets red hot!

[Ernest Kuk]

fixed all the ground wires that i found were cut. it still won't fire up. some of them still get hot but not as much as before. starter cranks much better. im guessing im still having a ground issue as the wires shouldn't heat up. will a bad ground cause the ignition to not work and thus not fire up?

 

[Kiko]

Most definitely. Worst is the possibility of a fire! Anytime your wires overheat, they loose their conductivity and a vicious circle begins -- less conductivity, more resistance, more overheating ... fire...

Before doing a "try and fix" approach, I would strongly recommend checking all your grounds. These wires (battery to block, block to frame, frame to body) should be at least 0-gauge or heavier. There should be 0 ohms resistance (i.e., perfect short) when you test with an ohm-meter.

 

[pontiacgp]

you don't need 0 guage, for the grounds 4 gauge is more than enough. I run a 4 gauge battery wire from my trunk to a ford relay then to the starter

 

[Kiko]

Agree -- you can get away with 4-gauge. However, if you run heavy duty accessories and stereo system (and some of these systems draw lots of amps), then it's best to "go bigger" on the ground wire. There's not that much difference in cost since these are not long runs.

 

[pontiacgp]

I have a good friend in the business and he has installed competition systems and he never has used anything bigger than 4 gauge. If a customer wanted an 0 guage he would put it in but always said it wasn't necessary. A JBL 1200.1 pulls 121 amps full tilt. An 8 cylinder diesel typically draws up to 650 amps and they use a 2 gauge cable. An 8 cylinder gas typically draws up to 250 amps. and a 4 gauge cable is used.

 

[Cylon1]

New member chiming in: you have poor ground and the starter is pulling current through the bad ground strap. You need to ground the block to the chassis, not the body, make sure it's metal to metal. It's not a short. The starter is pulling current through the motor and through the little ground wire which isn't thick enough. And it's using the brake lines as ground too which aren't solid and they're heating