Cascade Crew

Al Hasse · Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 6:09 pm Post subject: Starting problems

For a while now, I've been having some intermittent problems when starting the car, especially with the remote (probably doesn't make a difference). I took it to the tech who installed the alarm and went over many of the connections. Not sure if he found the problem, but he did find something that needed replacing and could definitely contribute to the cause.

This is the starter cable...

It's been in place for a good number of years and both ends started out the same color. The end seen with the connector attached to the starter (the other end to the battery of course), was routed as the stock one was close to the exhaust manifold. Over the years, the heat apparently got to it and made the insulation brittle and cracked, inside the cracks, the copper strands are corroded. I had him replace the cable with a length of welding cable of the same gauge and routed it around the oil pan and paralleled the negative cable that attached to the block. Something I could have done, but since the car was already disabled in the shop...

I should know in the next few days or weeks if we fixed this problem.

blue89 · Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 8:50 pm Post subject:

That could be a problem. Have you seen anything to protect the wires down there?

Al Hasse · Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 9:06 pm Post subject:

If it was down there, it's long gone. The cable was re-routed away from the manifold and around the oil pan in front of the motor, then routed to chase the engine ground cable back to the battery. Ended up using 2 feet less cable too.

The stock cable gave me trouble years ago, shortly after I bought the car (I built the on in the picture). It ended up shorting to the exhaust manifold intermittently and causing the car to stall. Since it's a 5-speed, the car restarted when the short went away as it was still rolling. I only found that one after smelling the melted insulation Shocked