I may have broken some stuff.
Since this is my day off, I decided to try my hand at an oil change to familiarize myself with working underneath a car and also try to fix the speedometer. I pulled out the instrument cluster to make sure the speedometer cable was connected (it was) and then I put the car on ramps, disconnected the battery, drained the oil, replaced the filter, and filled it with 5 qts of new synthetic.
I noticed when I was under the car that the negative ground from the battery wasn't connected to the block. Instead, it was hooked up to the starter cable bracket with a broken zip-tie, and the whole assembly was just kind of flopping around down there. I took the picture below after pulling off the ziptie and positioning the wire a little closer to the bolt.
Thinking myself to be a master mechanic since I had just changed my oil, I looked up a few youtube videos and found that the ground is supposed to connect to a timing cover bolt, so I hooked up the ground to the bolt, left the starter bracket where it was since I didn't have a bolt for it, and congratulated myself on a job well done.
I then checked the oil level on the dipstick and realized that I had overfilled, so I crawled back underneath the car and drained a little bit and checked again.
Then I thought to myself "well, the car is on an incline, so the reading wouldn't be accurate." so I got in and rolled it off the ramps in neutral. I checked the oil again, and it still seemed a little high, but it was hard to tell since there's a lot sticking to the sides of the dipstick tube. I figured the best way to tell is to let it run for a little bit to warm up the oil and distribute it to get a better reading. I turned the key, the car ran fine, and the oil pressure gauge still read in the normal range. I shut off the car, checked the stick again, and it was still a little high, so I decided the best thing to do would be to get it back in the air and drain a little more. I got in the car and turned the key.
This is where things got a little crazy.
Something sounded a little weird, so I turned the engine off which revealed that the starter motor was running, and was continuing to do so at a frantic pace. Pulling the keys from the ignition did nothing, so I popped the hood and yanked the negative cable off the battery, and that finally killed it.
It seems there was a reason the negative cable wasn't grounded to the block, but what I don't know is why the car ran fine the first time I started it, and went crazy the second time. I obviously shorted something out and bypassed the ignition switch somehow. Unfortunately, I need the engine to get the car on ramps, so if I'm going to fix it (by putting things back the way they were and taking it to a professional once this coronavirus thing is over) I'm going to have to get over my fear of jack stands. There's a smaller wire coming off of the negative terminal connector that goes to the starter solenoid, and part of that wire is stripped, so I wonder if maybe it's shorting out on the fender or something and it's not the ground at all.
