Battery cables smoking hot??

[Brandon11010]

Both positive and negative battery cables get smoking hot when car is turning over and while started.. replaced starter and checked starter wire for possible shorts, no luck.. engine fires and dies, then no power to even turn the motor over, wires smoking by then.. Battery fully charge and brand new Optima... Negative cable attached to Engine block and small wire to the fender, all ground surfaces clean... Im totally stumped on this one.. as is the parts store.. Help?

 

[Turkey Sammich]

I'd just buy new cables and see if it resolves the issue, if not, roast hot dogs

 

[Brandon11010]

cables are new... could the alternator be pulling that many amps off the battery to make it get that hot if there was something a miss there? something that is not fused would have to be pulling amps otherwise i fuse would just blow im assuming?

 

[BlownFiveLiter]

Check/clean all of the connections. If they've got a lot of resistance, the cables will get hot, and might get hot enough to cause a fire. I had one of the battery terminals on my 95 get hot enough to melt into a pool of lead on top of the battery (replacement terminal, not the stock one).

 

[Brandon11010]

what connections would you say? the only wires that feel hot are the pos and neg cables.. wouldnt something small just blow a fuse if it was pulling that many amps??

 

[terr5178]

First I would stop trying to start the car because you will cause alot of electrical issues in everything else. I know this sounds stupid but check to make sure you have the pos term hooked to the pos and neg to neg. (preliminary)
Remove the starter solonoid wires and check the continuity between the two lugs with no power across the small lug (solonoid coil). There should be none. Then check to see if there is continuity between the solonoid lugs and ground. There should be none. Energize the solonoid and check the lug to ground(none). Check across the lugs you should get continuity.
After that the next step is to check the starter lug to ground. there should be no continuity.
The starter system is pretty simple on these cars and a large current which will smoke the cables is a sure sign of power going diesctly to ground. I believe the solonoid is broken it is probibly directing some electric to the starter and some to ground through the solonoid. Or the starter is shorted out and bleeding electric direct to ground, its just a matter of testing the solonoid and starter to find which one is bad.

 

[Brandon11010]

Well so bacically my problem is all my power is going into a large grounded source, which is overloading the cables? well i was inspecting the alternator harness and noticed some wires poking out of what at the time i believed to be something like a fuseable link *before i saw the wires poking out* turns out it was someones halfass alternator repair, twisted together and electrical taped.. all lime corroded.. now if one of those was poking out and touched the alternator or fuel lines ect. would that cause a dead short enough to cause heat like that? they were the 2 larger black and orange wires coming off the top clip of the alternator.. if that helps

 

[86bluecobra]

A dead short would definetally cause that kinda heating issue. On a dead short amps will be through the roof. Usally that would blow a fuse but if there was short before the protection then watch out. Glad you found the problem before you burnt the car down.