Truck wont turnover (electrical problem?)

[chevyman95]

This truck is an 83 scottsdale and is not my daily. Every now and then the starter would kind of hang a little and I would have to wait a minute before starting it. Then one day it fried the negative battery cable coming off the battery and going to the fender and wouldn't crank at all. I hooked up another cable and the lights come on but it just clicks once when I try to start it. I hooked it up to another car with some jumper cables and it turned over once or twice and then hung and wont do anything even with the jumper cables on it. I really don't know if it is a bad starter or something electrical. Any ideas?

[Jonboy]

Sounds like the starter to me. I would also replace the ground (and ground it to the engine). See if that helps. Before you repalce the starter, have it tested, though.

[old Rusty C10]

exactly what Jonboy said make sure the ground to the engine and to the body is good and the strip between the motor abd body then if nothing bench test the starter

[C-10 simplex]

The main battery negative cable should go to the alternator bracket, the small one branching out from the large main should go to the fender/radiator support.

Is the small one the one burnt up?

[chevyman95]

Yeah it was the small one that was burned. I went out there today and cleaned the terminals really well and the truck was cranking fine. Got it started and drove it about 1-2 miles up the road and back. Cut it off and immediately tried to start it up again and the starter hangs. It will turn over for about 1 second or less then a large clunk. Is the starter bad? Any ideas? Probably going to pull the starter off and have it tested next.

[C-10 simplex]

Well, it could be the starter, but if the smaller wire got burnt up, then chances are the big, main wire is not grounding to the alt bracket properly which could cause the starter not to run.

Do you have 2 wires (big and smaller) going to ground now?

[CSGAS]

By the time you've gotten this much damage, you can also count on the battery having shorted out from overcharging while the negative cable was failing, or was failed before you found it (it doesn't take long)

If you set a multimeter across the terminals the battery may show over 14.5 volts while the truck is shut off even, but the shorted cells show when a load is applied (cranking) and depending on how many cells are damaged you can see voltage drop to 6, 4, or even 2 volts (mine went to 3.8 the last time it happened to me)

If the starter is good it will crank with jumper cables hooked up to it while out of the truck...if you gotta ask how to do that, let the parts store test it instead of trying yourself. A good starter should crank the truck with jumper cables to the starter and grounded to the block. If the positive and negative cables are good, too then it will crank with jumpers hooked up to the cables. The symptoms you are describing sound consitent for trying to start off a damaged battery instead of the jumpers doing the work.

[CSGAS]

Also that smaller wire is the fusible link for the charging system (overcharging, remember?) and while the starter has its own circuit, the ignition depends on that link being intact. If you keep cranking OK but not catching, then that fusible link could be your whole problem.

[chevyman95]

Forgot to mention it does all this hooked up to another car via jumper cables because it sat for 6 months and didn't have much of a charge in the battery

[chevyman95]

Thanks guys I will try again tomorrow