Electrical help at Ground

[Tommy Shumpert]

So yesterday when I was starting FJ it seemed to struggle turning over a little.
This morning I went out and would not turn over at all, so I put a charger on the battery for a few hours. Took it off and tried cranking it. I turned over but it was very weak.
I kept on it just thought it would start….
Turned key off and noticed a little smoke over by battery. Ground wire was fried as pictured.

Would a bad starter cause this, or am I looking for something else?

I have been driving it now for 8 months probably…(for reference) so it’s not like something new I have done.

When I comes to electric crap I am terrible. Fuseable link still good.

 

[ceylonfj40nut]

What does your battery voltage read when off and when cranking? How old is your battery? Pics of battery area and starter area pls.

 

[Tommy Shumpert]

What does your battery voltage read when off and when cranking? How old is your battery? Pics of battery area and starter area pls.

Battery currently reads 12.2v, cranking I believe it would drop down to like 11.7v. 1 year old.
I have removed wiring off battery, I have coolermans HEI 12v wiring harness and the fuse able link.

 

[charliemeyer007]

Batteries are crap these days. Load test it. Battery voltage should be like 13.2 and charge at 14.4. Volt meters can vary

When the starter is fixing to go out, they can pull a lot more amps as they can be almost a dead short.

I run a 2/0 red copper cable with cast on terminal from battery + to the starter. Black 2/0 copper cable cast on terminal from battery ground to bolt on engine. #2 black copper wire from bolt on engine to frame ground under brake line T. #10 Black copper wire from frame ground up to screw on the fire wall. All my positive wiring leads attach to positive terminal bolt. I use battery terminal cleaner and the corrosion protection spray. I also use the treated felt washers. Clean, tight connections are important.

 

[Gotta40]

where does your batt ground cable go? should be straight to the engine. 12.6 is resting batt voltage. anything below that and its under charge or weak.

 

[Tommy Shumpert]

When I was cranking on it it was really struggling, that’s when I saw it had smoke coming from the ground wire

 

[Tommy Shumpert]

where does your batt ground cable go? should be straight to the engine. 12.6 is resting batt voltage. anything below that and its under charge or weak.

It goes from ground to block, all new lines.

 

[Tommy Shumpert]

Little more investigation and looks like the main ground from battery to block, the bolt to block was loose. Would this be the cause of ground melting? As in pic

 

[rlong]

It generally can create a lot of heat!

 

[Living in the Past]

Be sure and check the other end of the maln ground. Main ground is a good connection it will use other smaller grounds. That will melt the insulation on those smaller wires quick.

 

[Engineer8000]

If the main block ground was loose, it is possible the smaller ground wire was taking all the starter current and melted down. Just a guess, not knowing where the smaller ground wire was connected.

edit:
@Living in the Past I just read your post above, I guess I just repeated what you said.

 

[Tommy Shumpert]

Engineer8000, Exactly what happened. I ended up rebuilding the wires that melted and re-wrapped them all. I got everything connected bake up and made sure everything was tight, even the ground at block(the culprit).
Started up and ran with zero issues. Dang that freaked me out. Anytime its electrical!!

Thanks for the HELP everyone.

 

[73FJ40]

Toyota's arrangement for grounding had the negative battery terminal connected to the frame under the battery tray, and a jumper cable from the passenger frame rail at the brake line junction block bolt connected to the lower fastener on the starter. See the picture.

The frame provides a ground path to all the peripheral electrical devices, and a heavy duty connection to the starter through this cable. A 1.2 Kw starter draws about a 100 amps at rated load, so a solid ground path is essential.

Feeding the ground path just through the engine block doesn't offer much, with the engine supported by rubber motor mounts, the axles isolated with shackle bushings, etc.