I am frying a fusible link which is attached to my starter. If I take the starter down to AutoZOne, what will they test it for ? Just the current draw? Can it be tested for intermittent shorting ?

 

I don't think the starter itself could fry the fuseable link; the culprit would be whatever circuit uses that link for power.

 

I don't know exactly what they do at auto zone, but you could always take it out and try the jumper cable test, clip the ground on the jumper cable the the metal case of the starter.

Tap the positive cable to the post that the battery connects to I have done this in the past to diagnose starter problems.

Just make sure the starter is either in a strong vice, or you have a damned good grip on it, the torque pretty good.

Eye protection is a good idear too.

I would think that they would only be able to test the constants. Solenoid, current/amp draw etc. I don't see a way to test it for an intermittent short, unless it happens to act up while on the bench.

Maybe if there is a weak or worn wire internally it might show up when they test the amps it pulls.

 

Your problem isn't the starter. There's no point in dinking around with it.

It's still a chafed wire or damaged part in the circuit that blows the fues.

Don't waste your time and effort chasing the wrong thing. You'll never get it fixed that way.

Check every single thing inside the car that has an orange wire going to it; the cigarette lighter, and the dome light wiring, are the 2 most likely culprits.

 

Yeah, I know, it doesn't seem like the starter is the problem, but someone told me it might be, so, in my electrical ignorance, I thought I would check it out.

btw, it's a RED wire, from the fusible link that has the problem. I guess the ORANGE wires you are talking about are for the 20 amp fuse, right ?

 

Right... those wires are "downstream" of the fuse, and carry battery around to the various interior things that run off of battery (as opposed to Ignition or Accessory) such as the cig lighter & dome lights & radio memory.

Electricity is just not that difficult of a concept to grasp, especially not at the extremely simple level that a car is. Battery power starts {drum roll please} at the battery, and travels down the battery cable to that post on the starter; at that point, the various big red wires are hooked to it, via the fusible links, which protect the wiring from shorts (unintentional connections) elsewhere in the circuits; each of those big red wires feeds some things, such as the ignition switch, headlight switch, battery terminals in the fusebox, brake lights, power seats, dome light, etc. etc. etc.; each of those circuits has its own fuse (which will blow at a lesser current than the fusible links, usually) that protects its own wiring, since as each of those wires gets smaller, they're easier to burn up. Then the power reaches the devices in the car via their switches and relays or whatever; the opposite side of each device is grounded, and all grounds are collected together by the big electrical connection known as the chassis, and that thing is hooked to the negative terminal of the battery to complete the circuit.

Your problem is quite simple. You have electricity that flows directly from the battery, through a fusible link, through one of the big red wires (the one whose link keeps blowing) to the fuse box, through a smaller fuse, and through a small wire to some point (commonly known as a "short circuit", since the circuit is "shorter" than it's supposed to be) at which the current can get to ground without passing through the device that it's supposed to power.

All you have to do is find the short. It's probably something simple and stupid, like a wire pinched between 2 parts during assembly, or that has an interior screw that goes right through a hanress and has penetrated a wire, or that is stretched over a sharp edge which has worn through the insulation such that the copper is now touching the car chassis.

 

Are there any electrical additions to the car, such as aftermarket driving/fog lamps, audio amplifiers, stereos, alarms, remote starters, etc??
If so, the power lead for any of them may have been tapped into to 'wrong' (unfused) side of the fuse panel...where the heavy red wire comes in and the accessories operate from fused power off that line...the aftermarket stuff may be running directly off that heavy line with no fuse.
Ordinarily, the fuse in the panel would blow long, long before the current was high enough to fry a fusible link. Since you're not reporting any blown fuses, I'm thinking something is wired directly.

Pete

 

Pete,

OK, here's the whole story. My 20 amp fuse for horn, computer, dome light, etc was blowing out once a week until I moved the fuse box into a certain position and secured it there. No blown fuses for 2 years. THEN ( drum roll) my fusible link at the starter fried out of nowhere about 3 weeks ago. I put in a a new FL and the car was OK for about 10 minutes of idling and driving, then the FL fired again AND the 20 amp fuse got into the act also.

Why would the FL blow and leave the 20 amp fuse OK the first time ?

A mechanic friend thinks I may have burned up some wiring in the harness during the second FL fry which shorted the circuit to the 20 amp fuse. But from looking at the red wire going into the harness, it looks OK. I peeled back the plastic tube here and there along the harness route, and I can see 2 red wires which look unburnt. Actually 3 red wires go into the harness at the starter, but I can only see 2 red wires when I peel back the tube and look inside ! Geez... Maybe the third red wire is deep inside the loom.

The mech thinks the loom may have burned because I attached a foot of 12 awg wire to the red wire, so I could have an accesible end to hook up the FL to. The original red wire was way up out of reach, and a major pita to even strip the end off of. I hooked up about 5 inches of 16 awg FL from the 12 awg wire to the starter.
After the second blowout, the FL was fried, and the 12 awg wire had its insulation melted. Why ?? Why didnt the 16 awg FL just fry and leave the 12 awg unharmed ? I got the 16 awg FL from the dealer. He said it was 16 awg, and the copper looks like about 16 awg, but there is no marking on the wire except for "XFL".

Just looking at the loom, it looks fine, no wires stuck to each other or burned. But I wonder where that third red wire is.

I think the short is an intermittent short, because I had the car running for about 5 minutes in my driveway, with only a 16 awg wire in place of the FL, and it ran fine, had all the accessories on, had the primary fan kick in, lights, radio, everything. Everything was fine, except that it was throwing out some blue smoke from the exhaust, which it had not done before.

GTA88

 

RB83L69,

I looked undert the driver's side dash and saw a lot of 16 awg orange wires, and I noticed a large 10 awg orange wire coming out of a loom by the steering column, which was melted ! This melted orange wire goes into a connector on top of the steering column. I think it is going into the ignition switch. Maybe I can replace the ignition switch and then somehow add a new wire to replace the melted orange wire. Hopefully the ign sw is the short that I am looking for.

Thanks,

GTA88