Car is a '77 comet with a 250. I was under the hood looking at all the stuff I need to do to get this car going and decided to try connecting the positive cable to the battery to test the lights. The first couple of times nothing at all happened, no power or anything, just a spark from the connecting the cable. Then I tried again and the engine started trying to turn over and the cable started fusing to the battery post. I know its a grounding problem, just figured I would see if anyone here had a good idea of where to start so I can move on to the next problem. Oh, I forgot to mention, it does need a new ignition module. I wonder if this could have anything to do with it.
The ignition control module won't have anything to do with it. Replace your starter solenoid...that should take care of the problem.
most likely a bad starter solenoid... smack it hard with a screwdriver and try again. if it works, replace the solenoid. if it still doesn't work, unscrew the nuts and remove the terminals on both sides of the solenoid and check for continuity through the solenoid. it should be 'open'. if its not open, replace the solenoid. if it is open... then your solenoid could be energizing when you hook up the battery... that's a wiring / other component problem.
Thanks alot for the suggestions. I will test the solenoid in the morning. Its dark already and my kids are going crazy. edit: couldn't wait till morning. I was more than happy to take a hammer to the solenoid to find out that it is bad. BUT, I am sad because I was able to realize that the factory radio does not work. I can hear static from the speaker when I turn it on but nothing else. With any luck, just a old, blown out speaker. Thank you again for your help! I know I will be asking many more questions to get this car back to where she needs to be (more than likely on the side of the road with pretty flashing lights behind me)
Update: I replaced the solenoid and everything appeared to be fine. Today I tried to start her up and she wasn't starting (fuel problem that I am working on). Then smoke started coming from the positive battery cable connection on the solenoid. I cleaned the connectors and tried again. This time when I turned the key it tried starting with no smoke but when I went to take the key out it was still trying to start. I disconnected the solenoid from the battery and each time I try to reconnect it tries starting again. The solenoid I replaced was only a month old if that means anything. I am thinking it is a grounding problem again. Or, to show my stupidity, when I reconnected the solenoid I connected everything back the way it was. Maybe whoever replaced it before didn't do it right.
Maybe a bad starter is nuking your solenoids. If too much current is trying to pass through the solenoid, it could weld the internal high current contacts together. Perhaps you were cranking too long too often? That shouldn't ruin a solenoid, but since it was used... I've seen weirder things happen. Im not sure of the wire color, but attached to the much smaller studs on the solenoid is the ignition wire, which energizes the solenoid. Verify it is wired correctly with a test light, which should go "ON" and "OFF" while cycling the key from run to start. You can't test this with the positive battery wire disconnected, though. You would have to either unstick your current solenoid, or jumper wire battery postive to the ignition feed wire, which should be in the budle of eyelets usually bolted to the battery positive side of the solenoid. It could just be that the used solenoid was going bad... A bad ground should not ruin solenoids. A bad ground would restrict current flow.
Take the ground cable off the engine & clean contact points. It might also help to add another ground from the engine to the body. A bad ground could cause your ignition switch to hang on, eventually burning up the switch.
yes a ignition module can cause this! it has happened to me, only it would only happen with the switch on, and everyone thinks im crazy! try disconnecting the small wires from the solenoid before connecting the battery. could be an ignition switch to.
Hopefully this is the end of this problem. I went to take the starter off and noticed that the ground wire was bolted to the tranny so I only had one wire even touching the starter. I had the starter tested and it came back good. I then put back the starter but this time I moved the ground cable from the tranny to a bolt on the starter. I then put in a new solenoid (this time a bwd instead of the cheap one). It is no longer trying to start on its own and there is no more smoke. Couldn't get her to fire so I started tracing wires and noticed that there were two wires not hooked up to the coil. After putting them back she fired right up. Now I just need to figure out why I have water(?) coming out of the tailpipe. Thank you for all of your help! My wife was pretty excited to hear the car running when I called her. After the water issue I just have to get her sounding good. Right now she sounds like a really old car that needs some tlc. Thanks again.
Water coming out of the tail pipe could be condensation...hopefully. If it continues though you better do a compression check. May have a blown head gasket.
Well, I noticed it was almost spraying water when I gave it gas but just a very very slow drip when she was just idling. The water looked like liquid rust so I am thinking it might be condensation that built up in the muffler. She has sat up for almost a year so I am expecting alot of gaskets and seals to need replacing.
Ok this may seem petty......... No such thing in DC wiring as a "ground". There is only a ground in AC wiring and it is a non current carrying conductor(except in an emergency). Think of the two conductors as equals and equally important, which they are. Pos. & Neg. don't call it a "ground" it's ignorant.
I know. Im sorry. I grew up around people that always referred to it as ground and never broke the habit. The terms I use for computer work so people understand are even worse. (I mean, come on, who does not understand the difference between vesa and pcie and why you can't install xp on your 8086?) Thank you for the reminder. You will still catch me referring to it as ground sometimes though. Can I ask what you mean by "except in an emergency"? Now, the water in the tailpipe was just condensation. She still isn't ready for the road yet. Got to figure out the flasher problem. Still have many more threads to read for that one.
