[Tigers] Electrical short during start attempt

[Gary Winblad]

Graham,
The loose ground in the trunk WILL prevent it from starting.
BUT your problem is the ground strap on the engine.
Make sure it connects from the engine to the chassis (the old Alpine 
tranny mount threaded hole).
It must be loose or connected wrong to burn the small black wire.
It is straightforward, really only as complicated as a flashlight ;-)
Gary


On 7/22/2018 11:03 AM, Graham Harlowe via Tigers wrote:
>
> Thank you all for the replies. (I knew I should have paid more attention
> during those EE classes!)   The starter circuit seems pretty straight
> forward:  heavy gauge positive cable from the battery to the starter
> solenoid and then to the starter/engine block.  The circuit is closed via
> the ground strap from the engine block to the chassis at the clutch slave
> cylinder and then from the chassis to the battery negative terminal via the
> short cable at the trunk bulkhead.
>
> The "two" ground wires that fried are actually two ends of the same wire.
> The wire enters the harness from the ballast resistor (chassis mount), does
> a 180 inside the harness, and exits the loom with the sending unit wire
> (block mount).  As others have said, when the heavy gauge starter circuit is
> open, the power seeks another ground path and the light gauge ground wire
> between chassis and block couldn't carry the load.
>
> I found the ground strap at the slave cylinder was intact with good
> connections.  I'll remove and clean up the contacts to be sure.  The battery
> cable at the trunk bulkhead wasn't tight.  I'll tighten that connection and
> hope that was the primary problem.
>
>   
> Let me know if there are any other places to look or items to check.
>
> Thanks again,
>
> - Graham
>
>
>
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