Surfriding Melting ground cable

[Lil Dick]

Out of know where I go this problem where the rubber coating on my ground cable is burning off its the second time it's happened this week once it shorts the ground wire I can't get any response until I put a new one on I have no idea why it ever where to begin to look to solve this problem

 

[Matt_E]

You ground cable is corroded to hell. Replace it.

 

[Dirtybird]

Looks as if he replaced with new one already no?

 

[Matt_E]

The cable gets hot because it has high enough resistance to dissipate enough power to heat it. That effect is localized. It may be that the starter is drawing excessive current.

 

[Lil Dick]

Yea this problem came out of no where I replaced it twice now with new cables could it be the starter relay or start stop switch holding a current the whole time Frying the wire

 

[Matt_E]

Not really. The current is determined by what the starter draws. The ground cable can handle that, so even a stuck relay would not cause the wire to melt if the starter is in good condition.

 

[Lil Dick]

So it could be just a bad start melting the ground wire. I have the battery grounded to a intake bolt

 

[restosud]

check your grounds.you have a poor connection somewhere

 

[augustaf]

So it could be just a bad start melting the ground wire. I have the battery grounded to a intake bolt

I hope you are using a 6 ga wire.

 

[SUPERJET-113]

So it could be just a bad start melting the ground wire. I have the battery grounded to a intake bolt

Also i would ground it on a starter bolt, not a intake bolt.

 

[Lil Dick]

The first one that was melted was on the starter

 

[augustaf]

Current draw high enough to "melt" the ground cable would have a similar effect on the (red) positive cable, just before the solenoid contacts fry. You're not using a 12 ga ground cable by any chance?

 

[Lil Dick]

I'm not sure on why wire I'm using I took the stock ground wire out of a wr3

 

[jetpilot36]

if it was a bad starter, wouldn't the amp draw ONLY occur when the starter was engaged? which shouldnt be no more than 5 seconds at a time?

 

[Matt_E]

Current draw high enough to "melt" the ground cable would have a similar effect on the (red) positive cable, just before the solenoid contacts fry. You're not using a 12 ga ground cable by any chance?

Exactly. The melting is localized for the reasons I listed earlier.

 

[Quinc]

If your power wire is getting hot, it is most likely your relay. At least that happened to me once where the rely stuck on and the wire started to smoke.

 

[Lil Dick]

My positive cable is staying fine

 

[Matt_E]

If your power wire is getting hot, it is most likely your relay. At least that happened to me once where the rely stuck on and the wire started to smoke.

If the rest of the starting system is fine, a stuck relay will not cause the wire to overheat to the point of smoking. That wire gauge is sized to handle the starting current of a healthy system for more than just a couple of seconds.
Your stuck relay was only part of the problem. Corroded wiring and an aging starter were the rest of it.

 

[Matt_E]

My positive cable is staying fine

You said you grabbed the ground cable from another ski, right?
My money is still on the cable being corroded. This is extremely common in older cables. Grounding it to the intake doesn't help,either.
If you have a DMM, remove the cable and measure resistance from terminal to terminal of that cable.

 

[Lil Dick]

Yeah I grabbed the cable from another ski the ends were clean i don't no if under the coating had any corrosion