I was having some problems keeping a full charge on the battery while the car was in storage, so i hooked up a trickle charger and when i went to start it up again last night, the thing didn't really want to crank and wasn't fully engaging the starter all the time (sounded like the solenoid kicked the gear out but it never spun). Anyway, after about 10 attempts trying to get the starter to start it, a friend noticed some smoke and we tracked it down to the positive battery cable, about 4" from where it connects to the battery, only in that one area it was almost too hot to touch, the coating was melting. It's not near any heat sources, and the rest of the cable wasn't even noticably warm, felt fine. I bought a new battery cable, but is there anything i should look into or is something just wrong with my old cable? I don't wanna put this one on just to find out that the old one wasn't the source of the problem...

thanks in advance...

 

You has a bad or high resistance connection most likely at the battery connection. Even a minescule amount of resistance at the battery attachment points will cause the area to get hot. You need to keep them clean. Before installing the new cable clean both connections at the battery and the neg cable, as the pos is the new one. Use petroleum jelly or die-electric grease to coat the connections when you are done. It's one of those routine maintenance things people often overlook.