hi I have a 1993 f250 with a 5.8 auto ex-cab. had some issues with it stating when warm so i adjusted the timeing seemed to work fine. did not drive for about 2months, go to start and it wont seemed like a bad starter, put a new one in and no different will turn very slow or just click once. pleanty of batt power and good connections. I was playing around trying to start it over and over and i noticed some smoke, It was the brake line heating up the wires. only the one line from the mater cylinder to the rear juntion would heat up. how? there are no lelec lines touching or melted. If someone can help me out would really appriciate it maybe i have over looked something obvious? I have taken a break for the day.

 

Maybe a bad ground strap between the battery and the engine? Since the battery is usually grounded primarily to the engine, for pulling all those starter amps, a bad engine ground would force the current through the body ground strap, which is a lot smaller than the engine ground. Is the brake line in contact with the engine at any point? I'd at least double check both ends of your battery wires. Just a thought. Never seen it happen before, but I never have seen a starter smoke a brake line either. Good luck. And let us know what happens, please.

 

That was the problem. The ground from frame to motor was rusted and corroded, replaced that and truck started right up. Easy fix that i over looked. thank you.

 

Greetings Willard: Thanks for letting us know what is up. Glad you got it running, but I don't think you're done quite yet. The fact that replacing the ground strap between the engine and frame got you going actually reinforces my opinion that the main negative battery cable has failed. The purpose of the engine-to-frame strap is not to start the motor. That straps purpose is to create commonality (electrically speaking) between the two separate systems, body and engine, to protect various bushings and mounts (brake lines?). It is not heavy enough to perform starting functions regularly. Look at your negative battery terminal. See the second, smaller wire running to the body? That is your body ground. It will run your lights and accessories. Since it is now pulling current to the starter, I promise you are overloading that whole system. Check the negative battery wire where it bolts to the engine. If there is nothing visibly wrong with that connection, I strongly recommend you replace your negative battery wire, as it has failed, even though you may not see it. It will save you headaches in the future.

Take care,
Marty

 

that is actually what i did. I went and just got a new neg batt terminal and ran it straight to the motor in a new location free from rust. and today i am replacing both front upper and lower ball joints outer tie rods u-joints, and the rear diff cover. if there is anything else worth replacing while its all apart please mention. Thanks

 

Nothing I can think of at the moment. I'm glad you replaced that cable though. Now that I think back a bit, I have also replaced a starter when cables were the problem. Take care.