Intermediate power loss, car almost stalls; burnt wire from starter to battery! Help!
 

Hey all so recently passed two weeks or so every time i go to drive my car once about every 5-10mins or so, sometimes not for 20mins (sometimes feel like its connected to bumps in the road) that the power to the car, electrical and all will cut off for a split second and then come back on. I've yet to had the car stall on me, but it feels like it will happen.

What ive noticed that could be the problem is a wire from the starter to the positive battery post ( large cable). Its burnt really bad from my recent 2055 hooker headers install. When i went to install i noticed the wire was burnt already from my previous header install so i said wtf i guess its already burnt it wont go any deeper :doh:

Now it looks like the wire has become burnt even more, i want to replace it but i dont know if its a replaceable whole wire, or if i could cut and splice in some butt connectors with new wire (if anyone knows what gauge of wire it is would be great) in between. Would that be safe? Im going to wrap the wire in some protective insulation afterwards. Im pretty sure this is whats causing the problem as it cuts all electrical.

Any advice or information is greatly appreciated. Thanks all!!

Re: Intermediate power loss, car almost stalls; burnt wire from starter to battery! H
 

That burnt part my friend is what is known as a fusible link. If it is burnt, I wouldn't drive the car anywhere unless you are going to jack it up and fix it. Trust me DO NOT DRIVE. What will happen is that the connection will eventually be lost and you wont be able to start the car, or do anything else for that matter depending on what link it is that is busted. It could affect starting, charging, instrument panel and lights or all. This wire is what feeds your gauges and gives power to your dash and lights (and everything else). Based off what you stated it sounds like it is just the dash link that is going bad, but I would not drive like that.

Fusible links also feed your ignition switch and also they allow the alternator to charge the battery (hot at all times red wire to the alternator)

This has left me stranded before.

To fix this I personally am switching my engine bay harness to a complete 4th gen LS1 era harness. But then again I am going LS anyway. For you I would suggest Perhaps some sort of wire rerouting to a fuse box/panel under the hood. This would eliminate the fusible links altogether and you would just have fuses. It would take a Saturday at least to rewire it, but that is what i would do. If you are not wire savy and just want to try to fix this, type fusible link into google and see what you get. Be forewarned, there are different sizes and if you get the wrong size it will just burn up.

Re: Intermediate power loss, car almost stalls; burnt wire from starter to battery! H
 

Does any one know what size that fusible link is? Thanks all

Re: Intermediate power loss, car almost stalls; burnt wire from starter to battery! H
 

i had a fire in car years ago from a wire touching the headers.
i wouldnt drive til you fix it,...too many bad things can happen.
you can get a new pre-made battery cable at the local parts store.
JMO,...if your fuseable link was burnt, your car probably wouldnt start.
route your new cable as far from the headers as you can.

Re: Intermediate power loss, car almost stalls; burnt wire from starter to battery! H
 

Does anyone know the name of the part ( how it's labeled) I'm having a hard time finding positive battery cable on autozone.com

Re: Intermediate power loss, car almost stalls; burnt wire from starter to battery! H
 

Don't get them from amazon or autozone. Look at Innovativewiring.com or something like that. Tgey are about $100, but best money you'll spend for thicker handmade better battery cables that are a direct fit. Tell the guy how you want them made and he'll do it

Re: Intermediate power loss, car almost stalls; burnt wire from starter to battery! H
 

Sounds like you burnt the + battery cable to the starter and it's shorting against the headers. Just replace the battery cable with new and route it away from the headers.

I used secured mine to a few oil pan bolts with Russel -8AN fuel line clamps.
This keeps the cable away from the header and is a straight shot to the starter.

Re: Intermediate power loss, car almost stalls; burnt wire from starter to battery! H
 

can you take yours off and match it up at the parts store?

i buy my cable from a welding supply store. i use the good fine strand ground wire. didnt cost me $100 to move the battery to the rear hatch.

Re: Intermediate power loss, car almost stalls; burnt wire from starter to battery! H
 

Those look really high quality build but a little pricey. If i cant find a direct replacement im going to go with that but would like to not spend as much.

Yeah its that wire. Im just wondering if i can find a replacement part at a local autoparts store (autozone, oreilly over here) and if anyone knows the name they would label it as.

That sounds like a good idea, how did you add length to your cable?

Nice, Yeah im going to have to replace it any who so might as well take it off and get some pics for here as well.

Re: Intermediate power loss, car almost stalls; burnt wire from starter to battery! H
 

It's called a side post battery cable.

Any parts store will have them in stock. They come in different lengths,you can take your old one with you if you want to buy a longer one.

Re: Intermediate power loss, car almost stalls; burnt wire from starter to battery! H
 

The great thing about the ones from innovative is that they are bigger, so you have much less voltage drop throughout the system. So your turn signals are faster, lights don't dim, and so on. The other thing is that he will put in provisions for your ecm power feed and fans or whatever gets its power from that butt splice in the battery cable by the battery tray.

Autozone won't do that. And the only thing I trust autozone for is the little stuff or filters or oil. You get a bad cable that isn't crimped right or the insulation is fragile and the 12v+ touches ground, poof fire. Electrical fires are not fun to deal with. Battery cables are a main component and critical.