Ferrariferg

iTrader: (3)

So I was finishing up with my car for the day and decided to give her a crank just for grins not thinking anything would happen. She fired right up and ran for a few seconds before I shut her off since I have no exhaust at the moment. I decided a couple minutes later to give it another go. I hooked the battery charger up since the battery was low, set it to engine start, crank the engine, no go. I figured I'd give it 1 more try before calling it a night. I start cranking and I see smoke. I start looking over the wiring but don't see anything wrong. Then I see my braided stainless clutch line is whats smoking. The protective plastic cover had melted clean off. I'm at a loss. This is a new one to me. Are these cars a + ground instead of - ? Please help. I'm so close to having my car back on the road and I really want to get this sorted out ASAP. I appreciate any suggestions.

DarrenTRS

iTrader: (1)

Are you sure you didn't by chance hook the battery charger up backwards?

Ferrariferg

iTrader: (3)

Double and triple checked. It also has a light if its hooked up backwards. I also tried it without the charger and the line still got hot after a few seconds of cranking. Its only while cranking to. I can leave the car in the on position for hours and nothing happens.

DarrenTRS

iTrader: (1)

Sounds like you have a short somewhere near the clutch line...any wires near by hanging down onto the clutch line?

Ferrariferg

iTrader: (3)

I am using one of the clutch slave bolts for one of my engine harness holders. I'll have to go over the whole harness tomorrow.

Jeff20B

iTrader: (13)

Hmm, looks like you don't have a proper ground on your engine yet. Congrats on it starting right up though. I knew it'd be a healthy engine for you.

Anyway the normal ground goes from the battery's negative terminal down to the firewall where the insulation is stripped and it makes contact there, then it travels over to the rear plate and hooks either to the bellhousing bolt just below the oil pedestal, or to the long starter bolt, or down below on the short starter bolt. I've seen all three so not sure which is stock but I like hooking this ground wire to one of the starter bolts since it's a little closer to the starter and a lot easier than the difficult bolt under the pedestal.

Since you've done so much rewiring but not checking your results after each step, it is understandable that something like this would happen. Fortunately you didn't toast a throttle cable or choke cable. Good thing the braided hoses are easy to change and cheap (like 18 bucks from Mazdatrix). Good thing it was braided instead of just rubber because it saved your throttle cable.

So do yourself a favor and hook up several thick ground wires from engine to chassis and engine to battery. It will make other electronics in your car work better like wipers, power windows if you have them, dash cluster gauges, dome lights etc.

I once had no ground in my REPU. The reason it ran and didn't burn through the throttle cable (good luck finding one of those) is because the tranny mount had sagged and was allowing metal to metal contact. It's since been fixed with a thick new ground cable and a nice new competition tranny mount. I'm thinking about adding another ground cable because it seemed to crank faster with metal to metal contact. lol

DivinDriver

iTrader: (15)

Yep; ground-return of starter current (over 100 amps) through the clutch line. Check the section of your battery negative cable that connects from near the starter to the chassis ground point on the left shock tower.

This is why braided steel FUEL lines are IMO a bad idea.

Ferrariferg

iTrader: (3)

I'll check my ground. I had redone the ground but maybe its not good enough. I'm glad it was just the clutch line. lol. The motor sounded great Jeff. Especially since it has no exhaust. I wasnt expecting it to start at all since I dont have any vacuum hooked up/capped.

Ferrariferg

iTrader: (3)

Got it fixed. One of the lugs on the ground cable wasn't on very well. Thanks for the help everyone. The starter turns over a lot better now to.

I agree DD. They are too flashy for my taste as well. I'll eventually be going with teflon braided lines and black AN fittings some time in the future.