Burned hand no more electric
 

Here's what happenend.

I went to the auto parts store and bought a battery tray so I can relocate my battery to its original location under the hood. The reason for this is because the positive cable that Summit sold me with their crappy trunk battery relocator kit.

The positive cable isn't thick enough for normal operation. It would get roasting hot while driving. Then when I would reach my destination and turn off the car, it wouldn' t restart because the cable was too hot. Well, yesterday, I tried forcing the car to start by turning the ignition on. The starter would barely move. I repeated to turn the ignition on and off, trying to get the motor to crank over. Its worked before, but not yesterday. When I turned the key this time the starter kept trying to turn - even with the key out of the ignition.

I started to see smoke coming from the engine compartment and I panicked. The first thing I thought of was to jump into the rear of the car and rip off the positive cable from the battey. It was either this or jump out of the car and possibly watch my battery blow igniting my gas tank. There was alot of people around.

I reached over to rip off the positive cable and it severely burned three of my fingers on my right hand. With the massive burning pain I grabbed my adjustable wrench that I keep next to the battery box and managed to undo the positive cable. My skin looked wrinkled and the pain was massive. I actually thought I was gonna blow up with the car. Similar feeling as Hurricane Andrew. The worst nightmare of my life.

Ok, so with the detailed description of what happened, lol, the final result is a dead car. Only the door locks work. I have absolutely no power. I grabbed a volt meter and tested current. There is power going to the starter selenoid. The battery is still at 12.47 volts. I checked my fusable link. Is seems ok. There's not even power to my dome light. My headlights don't work either. I checked all fuses under the dash. All seems O.K.

What should I look for, guys?

I'm sorry that I wrote a long story, but I thought that this would be a lesson in safety everyone can benefit from. Maybe I'm just an idiot. Or maybe its ust me. lol!

Help me!

Thanks.

Oops, I forgot.

Just me
91'lx, 302 block, crank pulley, no smog, short belt, Wolverine 1087 cam, 15 deg timing, TFS TW heads, motorsport 1.6 3/8 stud RR, ARP studs, TFS chrome hardened push rods, 24lb inj, BBK 255lph fuel pump, Areomotive billet adj FPR, Performer RPM intake(ported to 75mm), 1" spacer, Motorsport polished tall valve covers(love em), Pro-M 77, Acufab 75mm TB, Ford idle air bypass valve, K&N conical, MSD 6AL and coil, 9mm MS cables, NGK bkr5e 11 plugs@55, motorsport 3 core radiator,160 thermostat, Hurst short throw, motorsport 410 gears, aluminum drive shaft,Kenny brown Subs, Mac 1 3/4"Long tube, custom 3"off road xpipe, 2 chamber Flow Masters, 3 1/2" tailpipes HAL tubular K-member, KYB struts and shocks, Eibach springs, Steeda 2.5" Cowl, Steeda rear wing, black Dupont centari acrylic enamel paint.

You had some sort of short to begin with.
A battery cable should not get hot under normal use. I believe you had some sort of ignition switch short and caused you all the trouble.
Sorry for the pain. Hope you get better.

Sounds to me like your starter solenoid stuck, causing the starter to continually crank. Check and make sure battery is grounded well, also check all other grounds, I doubt you fried the computer in case your worried about that.

I agree with drudis the cable should not get hot, I would first pull the battery and take it to a place that test batterys (sears, pepboys, autozone) then check all the wiring and fuses, than try this again this time be ready to pull the cable off, if it tries to start check the starter solednoid. Also did your car ever go in for the ign. switch recall??

1) Replace the pos. cable with some 2 gauge welding cable.
2) Replace the starter solenoid.
3) Check your fusible links with a DMM set to ohms. There shouldn't be any detectable resistance.
4) Verify your gound connections, and add a ground cable between the engine and the frame, and another between the frame and the firewall (or rear floorpan). The fact that you have the battery mounted in the trunk means that your ground that used to go to the engine is no longer there, unless you've added a cable. This leaves crappy braided ground wires that can't handle heavy loads.

In the future, if you ever encounter a similar situation in which the engine continues to crank over, just rap the solenoid with the handle of a large screwdriver.

Take care,
-Chris

Re: Burned hand no more electric
 

I lived in Miami beach when that happened... Fortunately, we were forced to evacuate. My dad was the GM of the Eden Roc hotel, and he stayed behind, got some really good video. Life sure changed there after that...