no starting help

[blksn955.o]

well my 94gt will not turn over, I replaced the starter since it was making a tinging noise like the noid was bad, and also put my batt. on a charger and tested it and its ok. with a new starter and good batt. it will still not turn over. I also checked under the hood fuses as well as the fuse panel inside the car all was good. Here is the weird thing when I was looking and listening under the hood I noticed my N2o fuel line for my wet kit running off my schrader(sp?) valve was realy friggin hot, I mean hot enough to start melting a rubber fuel line hose I wraped it in to keep the line more lo key as well as protect any wires from the sharp braided line. I also get a puff of smoke from the E-brake handle that smells like electricle short, but I removed my console to look at the wires and they are ok, so I made it smoke and saw it was coming from under the car and inside through the cable gromet on the floor, Then I jacked the car up to see if any wires were bad and there is no wire anywhere near the that part of the car???? only what looks like a hard fuel line group that would not make a burning wire smell so WTF.

Help please fellow sn95'ers

Thanks Greg

 

[mytight95]

did you check your ground straps on the exhaust, i had one of them that had corroded and came apart and that was my problem and the car was doing the exact thing that you are describing


jason

 

[RIO5.0]

You definatley have a short somewhere....That smoke is not good for sure, she's arcing out somewhere.

Id be undoing those wrapped lines you spoke of....There that hot, then your short may be in that grouping???? Worth a look see...

" so i made it smoke" How'd you do that ???? You must have power grounding somewhere...

I had the same starter problem...it ended up the braided ground strap that connects to the drivers side motor mount...

 

[blksn955.o]

Thanks guys,

I pulled out my center console where the smoke was coming from and saw no problems with the wires and how I made it smoke was by trying to start the car, after a few tries (6-10) I noticed smoke would rise out of the console that is what I meant by make it smoke. Like I also said the smoke was coming through the e-brake cable gromet, makes me think I will check my ground strap on the exh. (didnt even think about that thanks). I checked all the wires that were under the console and all were fine.

as for the wrapped lines it is a braided fuel line (no wires or elect. at all), that I wrapped a piece of old rubber fuel line on to help not have the braided steel line mess with any elec. wires since steel braided line can get preaty rough.

I did check the ground strap on the driver side front of the block and it is tight and a clean connection.

any other ideas would be great\

thanks,
Greg

 

[Car Nut]

Just a thought:

You mentioned the ground strap on the driver's side of the block. I had electrical issues a couple years ago that involved replacing the starter, battery, and alternator. Since then every time I cleaned the engine bay, a few days later I wouldn't be able to start my car. Didn't make sense, until a co-worker mentioned disconnecting the ground strap and rubbing the block, nut, bolt, and terminal real good with sand paper. BINGO!!! This fixed things until the next time I washed the engine bay and the same process would repeat itself. I decided to buy the same type wire as the ground and I now have an additional ground wire attached to the negative battery post that leads to a location (few inches past radiator on driver's side) already being used for grounding. All problems are solved.

I had the smoke issue also, but never found a single damaged wire. Since creating the odd wiring for additional grounding, my car has none of the previous problems even after washing the engine bay.

This may not be your solution, but just in case, I thought I'd share my story which may be similar to yours.

Every now and then (once or twice a year), I go ahead and clean the ground strap connection using light sandpaper to create a clean rough surface. When you use sanpaper, the parts look new but you won't be able to see the fine scratches made. Those scratches make a prime condition for grounding or other electrical purposes.

Good luck. Sorry if this doesn't help.

 

[blksn955.o]

Thanks Car nut I was thinking of doing another ground wire but did not know if it was even a sound idea. well I am going to look and work on it a bit.

Thanks for the replies everyone
Greg

 

[blksn955.o]

I tired messing with the ground wires, I cleaned up the batt. ground to block and no dice, then added a second ground from the batt. to the rad. location as said above with still no luck, then went from the block to the chasis....

Well it was a bad engine block ground to chasis I jumped the block to my strut tower brace and it started right up

Thank you mytight95, RIO5.0, and Car Nut for the help

Thanks, Greg

 

[mytight95]

No problem man i knew that is what it was because when i had my starter chamged and didn't have a good connection i had the same smoke through where the e-brake handle was.

Glad it is fixed, it sure is nice to be able to post here and get help isn't it. I hate when my car is down

jason

 

[blksn955.o]

It is very nice, esp. since I am a good 30-40 miles from the perf. shop I go to and that would have been one large tow bill, and the trailer we use has my buds 72 f250 on it with a front and rear busted diff (D44 and D60 ) that happend the same night my car would not start.

My car should be down right now anyway since I have a dead cyl. but my AOD went out on my 90 F150 Bronco so I have to drive it until the Trans. is shipped (went out the 30th) dam all the luck .

THANK YOU ALL AGIAN
Greg

 

[RIO5.0]

The best fix is to remove that jam nut/bolt and clean up real good...replace the jam nut with a new one...they get pretty corroded over the years..I sandblasted the bolt, replaced the jam nut then placed a thick flat washer in between where the negative cable gets held by the jam nut....Mine was arcing both there and where it connects to the inner fenderwall...
Love them cheap fixes...

 

[Car Nut]

Glad to hear you got your stang running again.

I've been able to stick with my extra ground for a couple years. I figured the expense to completely fix it would be ridiculous and time consuming. Plus, I've had several people look under my hood and no one has noticed the extra wire.

Rio5.0 has some good advice too, especially if this problem repeats itself at all.