I'll try and make this brief, apologize if it's long.

On saturday, after doing a nightmarish s/c pulley install, I leave my friend's house. The first thing I noticed is that my Hella driving lights aren't working. This is on non-OEM wiring, and I've never had a problem with them before. They start working later on in the drive, and I shrug it off as a loose wire on the lights.


Fast forward to wednesday night- Me and some friends spend a couple hours installing a new belt tensioner, as I thought mine was making noise. Turned out that wasn't where the noise was coming from, but that's another story altogether. We start the car, all seems fine. We leave to get something to eat, and I flip on the driving lights. They don't come on for a second, and then all of a sudden they come on. I still shrug it off as a loose wire, since I never got a chance to check it from the other night. I drop my friends off, and make the hour-long trek back home. No oddities whatsoever. I get home and go to bed.

Wed morning- here is where the real trouble starts. I'm not sure wether it's related to the weirdness with my lights, but I figure I would mention the lights in case. I get in my car this morning, and go to start it. I get a "click", and that's it, sort of like a relay clicking, just a little louder. I pop the hood, and the first thing I notice is that the top of my positive terminal cover is melted a little. I pop the terminal cover, and inspect. Aside from some charred plastic, nothing else seems wrong (not that melted plastic is anything to shrug about.) I disconnected the wire that runs to the lights, in case the lights are shorting something out, and try again. Nothing, same "click", no start. So after maybe 15 minutes of fiddling with things, not really doing anything productive except staring at things and poking around, the car just starts right up on another try as if nothing was ever wrong.

I drive to the bank to drop off some papers. I get back in my car, and I'm faced with the same exact problem as earlier that morning. Pop the hood, look at stuff, look at the battery connections in the back, and inspect the little window on the battery to see what the charge is, which happens to be green. Poke around, and fiddle with wires some more. Car starts all of a sudden after about 10 minutes or so. I drive to work, about another 15 minutes from the bank. I get to work, shut the car off, and immediately try to start it again. Won't start, same symptoms.

So now, im here at work wondering if I'm going to be stuck here. Does anyone have any ideas? The passenger side ground cable that we removed last night to do the tensioner install, is connected and tight. We didn't remove any other wires from the engine last night. I wasn't able to crawl underneath and inspect any wiring this morning, because im in my good work clothes.

 

Can't say with any degree of certainty, but it sounds like you pulled some wires loose during the pulley install. It will be time consuming, but you need to go thru the entire engine bay and check wiring connections.

 

Check the entire battery cable runs from the battery (tighten them down) to the starter (tighten, etc) and wherever the negative cable runs to.

 

I'm not sure why the battery + would melt from this, but try the engine ground wire - which goes to the passenger side and is held by a 13mm head nut and bolt (you removed it for the pulley install).

Check your wiring for the lights, as I would think that can't be coincidence.

Hope that helps!
Randy

 

Yeah. And the melting sure is indicative of a short/bad connection not interrupted by a fuse.

 

That cable is definetly tight, I specifically remember tightening it last night, plus the fact that I check it this morning. I'm thinking there is a short on the starter motor somewhere, or someplace else underneath my engine that I couldn't see this morning, seeing as I was going to work. I'll have to check later tonight.

 

It's probably going to be something near where you were working on that pulley. Just to be sure check all your battery connections as posted, then trace back your wires for your lights verifying that nothing is pinched or chaffed. You'll also want to look around the area you were working in when you put the pulley in and make sure a wire isn't pinched or chaffed also.
Too much of a coincidence that it happened after your pulley install, so start there before throwing money at a starter.

 

I have a feeling that a wire became pinched, stripped, or disconnected/loosened when the engine was being lifted. Thanks for the ideas guys, ill be sure to check everything I can think of.

But one more question- is the start motor most easily accessed from the top, or from underneath the car?

 

I had a '94 GMC Suburban that would do exactly what you are saying. Turned out to be a bad starter motor relay. But i would go with what chpsk8 said before spending any money.

 

How does one check relays to see if they are bad? There is no visual indication like a fuse.

 

I had some Hella Fogs installed. One day it rained ... Water got under the bonnet and the relay blew.

I found it inexcusable that water got under the bonnet but the wiring had to be rerouted.

 

Try cleaning the posts on the Battery & making sure the + lead up front is tight (by trying to move it) maybe the nut is tight but not the cable can still be lose

 

Buy some garlic and wooden stakes. At the next full moon,...

 

There is a loose connection somewhere. When the connection is loose, it will be resistive and that causes things to heat up. Also, when it is warm, the resistance is higher and that causes the no-start condition when the car is hot.
** Pay attention to where you saw the melted plastic. If there are any connections other than a jumper terminal, that is probably where the problem is.**
It could also be the solenoid on the starter. If that is the problem, trying multiple times in succession should make it start.

 

Just curious, did you find out why the top of the + cover was charred? Check the underside of the hood (bonnet) - do you have any wiring run there? Something caused a decent amount of heat to occur in that area, likely a spark/short, and that in turn may have caused other damage in the elec system. Sounds funky, but also check your battery terminal connections, and trace ANY wire that might've been stretched or stressed during the pulley install.

good luck!

(edit: Looks like MikeL and I were typing at the same time!)

 

Absolutely... When a live wire contacts the metal chasis, then current flows through that wire, into the chasis and then to the battery negative terminal. Since ther's no accessory (device) in the circuit, then all of the power of the battery (which will be many, many amps) flows instantly through that wire, cauding massive heating - like the elements in a toaster (YIKES). This is why you install fuses - they open (blow) before the load-carriyng capacity of the wiring is exceeded and melts/catched fire.

Since the wiring didn't go orange hot immediately and catch fire, but it DID melt a bit, then I'd suspect that a wire or wires got pinched or nicked and are making a slight contact with the chasis (ground) someplace. I know that in a SC pulley install you have to jack up the engine, and it would be very easy for something to pinch. The delayed response to the driving lights seems too coincidental for it to be unrelated, I agree - if I had to guess based on your recountng, I'd say that one of those wires in the lamp circuit is making occasional and brief contact with the chasis - when they do, more current than the wiring can handle flows down them (causing the melting) but when the contact is broken then the current travels all the way to the lamps as designed.

Seeing as no fuses have popped, however (which is extremely disturbing), I'd be VERY CAREFUL in re-tracing your non-OEM circuit - sounds like you either didn't fuse it or that the short is occuring at a point before that fuse - this is why you should ideally fuse ALL your circuits within 10-inches of the positive current source (the + battery terminal or whatever source you used for power). With fuses, closer to the power source is ALWAYS safer!

Good luck!