Battery Short?

[lx-missile]

I have a '91 5.0 LX. On the way home, the radio cut out a couple of times, then I started hearing a noise under the hood. When I turned off the road, the electrical system shut down (gauges, fuel pump, everything cut off.)

When I had it pulled home, I thought the battery might be the problem. Started to unhook it, and found the positive side hot (and getting hotter). We yanked the cable and swapped the battery with another one and the problem seems to be solved.

My question is this: the bad battery was a few years old, is it possible that it just went south on its own, or is this thing a fire waiting to happen?

Thanks in advance!

[HotRoddin]

What was hot ? the cable, the terminal, the Batt. case ???
If it was the cable, you either have a bad connection in a high current load area, or you have a short somewhere down the line. If you're talking about the battery case being hot, it may have had an internal short across one of the plates.

Rod

[lx-missile]

Thanks for the input. When I first started unhooking the battery, the positive terminal would arc (like you shorted it with a wrench, but it would do this if you just moved the cable by hand).

The cable is the first thing I noticed that got hot- it started melting the insulation on it.

[grey88gt]

What kinda noise did you hear. About the only thing that could cause a load that great would be the starter. If the starter solnoid got stuck in the enaged position it would cuase that kinda load on the postive cable. The altenator may have shorted and went to ground also, but the wireing to it is smaller and would probally burn into. I think if you had something short out to ground, and cause the cable to get that hot it would be pretty easy to see. Just my 2 cents Good Luck

[lx-missile]

Well, finally got a chance to look it over better and I did have to replace the solenoid. It fired right up, but now I am hearing just a slight bit of noise from the starter when it fires. Oh well. . .

Thanks again.