So this is on my beater wagon... It hasn't been driven in a few years. Maybe moved around my driveway one every few months... I had a starter housing break earlier this year as I tried to move it. I replaced the starter and replaced the battery... I had advice it may have been a weak battery and it was still cool out. I was also told it may be the timing being off since it was a hard start . Well I never touched the timing. Its still has been a hard start but I don't move it much. I had it running yesterday and today nothing . it was like a dead battery. So I went to put the charger on it and the negative battery terminal was melted onto the battery. Is there more I need to look for.... Maybe a bad voltage regulator? When If I to start it the left turn signal light goes on in the dash now..so something screwy is going on with it. I need to move it so I have room to get the front seat out and change it out. I know I need a new negative battery cable now.
Looks/sounds like a bad ground causing high resistance, and by the pics, I'd say you needed a new negative cable anyway and that was probably the cause of the heat and slow starter. EDIT: If your positive cable looks anything like that, you might as well change it at the same time to cover your bases.
Yep--high resistance with high current = high heat. Where that clamp on end is connected to the wire, it is rusty/corroded and causing high resistance. Replace the cable and you should be good to go.
Low voltage and trying to start a car can cause the wires to get hot. Especially if the connections aren't clean. I've done it before and learned not to do that again. Ended up replacing both cables and the battery.
Terminals SOOOO Dirty = High Resistance = Melted Terminal . If Positive looks the same as that Negative Cable Replace that too . Those cable ends are called " Emergency Terminals " for a reason . They are only designed to get you out of trouble . After that the entire cable needs to be replaced
Just an update.....and a thanks. The battery cables did fix the problem for the most part. It turned into a bigger project than cables..... I decided to tackle a few more items along with battery cables after I got it running. The car has been sitting for lime 2 years if not more. It gets moved in and out of the driveway once in a while. So even when it was my daily driver it was a dog. Not real speedy and would heat up. Get to 210* and creep up more at times st idle. It had an original radiator no shroud since the fan would always hit it. It is a 7 blade fan if I remember right. So years ago I bought some pulleys off a board member and I finally went to install them. Well my car I guess had a long shaft water pump and the new pulleys were for a short shaft. The originals were quite larger as well. While trying to take the fan off the aluminum spacer that was fused to the shaft was a bear to get off. Finally it came off and hit the radiator........ Put a hole in it. So I replaced the water pump, pulleys, battery cables, shroud and had to modify a BE COOL aluminum radiator I had here. I had to cut brackets off the radiator. I also had to make new brackets to mount a different shroud I had here too. It's a heavy duty radiator. So after all that the car still was getting to 200 degrees and was then hitting 210 again. This thing has been running rough for a while. Backfiring out of the carb and such. Idled nice but other than that was a dog. I was reading on here about timing and I wanted to see if the vacuum advance was working. I went to take the dist cap off and the rotor fell right out...... Huh? I also wanted to see what springs were on the distributor advance and to see if that was flipping around too. It looked like heavier springs. I put a vacuum pump on the advance and it appeared not to work. Gotta get one of them now. The initial timing was at 18* so I have to mess with that.
Corrosion to stranded copper wiring that you see in these pictures is likely throughout the system. If you start peeling back insulation in various places/connections of the car and see anything similar, take it as a warning to replace the wiring. Even the cost of replacing all the harnesses are less than the recovery (if possible) to a major wire fire and resulting damage to the car. These car's wiring were never expected, nor manufactured to last 40-50 years. While I "loath" other people spending someone else's money for them, this is a time I'll make an exception. The wiring is much like a person's nervous system. If it is compromised, everything else, no matter how good of shape it is in, suffers terribly. Figure if the value of the wagon is worth the cost for "peace of mind". And if it is not, keep a good fire extinguisher nearby, and both battery cables disconnected when you are not staring at the car with one eye on that fire extinguisher...
I whole heartedly agree with Mike! I keep a 3# dry chem job stuck between the passenger seat and the console. I also keep a 1/2 wrench with a piece of brass wire looped around the handle. Dont make the mistake of mounting it in the trunk! When the black smoke starts billowing out, seconds matter... ws
Actually a razor knife on the carb fuel line.. just a knick and 5 miles later.... Just put a new spread bore Holley on it and within a mile developed a rod knock. Dang!! The car was a pure lemon from the git-go...
