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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1112
 
Location: Wild Wonderful | I was trying to start a 59 Dodge Coronet with a bad battery and a battery charger, without success.
I finally went out and bought a new battery. The problem is that when I hooked it up, the horn sounded.
I then disconnected the horns and tried to start it again, but the cables got red hot.
What did I burn up? |
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Expert
Posts: 3887
  
Location: Northen Virginia | what cables got hot?
if the plunger got stuck your starter is engaged..
 (Starter_motor_diagram.png)
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1112
Location: Wild Wonderful | I bench tested the starter. It seems to be okay. The solenoid is not on top of the starter, it is up next to
the battery.
The cable that got hot was the negative side of the battery, that goes to the engine block. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 580
| Was the starter turning at all during the time the cables were red hot ?
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Expert
Posts: 3393
Location: Chestertown, NY ( near Lake George) | That usually occurs due to a bad ground side connection |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1112
Location: Wild Wonderful | local2Ed - 2017-03-10 8:00 AM
Was the starter turning at all during the time the cables were red hot ?
Yes, the starter was cranking the engine. |
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Expert
Posts: 3887
Location: Northen Virginia | clean the ground wire connections free of rust and try again. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1112
Location: Wild Wonderful | Okay, I cleaned them. Not much to clean, they looked pretty good.
Negative cable still gets hot when cranking. I must be cranking it for too long, maybe?
Is 15 seconds too long to crank?
I keep trying to plug the horns back up, but they start sounding as soon as I do. Why? |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1102
Location: Hayward, Calif | You might try removing the horn ring, if not there remove the pos wire from the horn relay. Or put a voltmeter between the neg post and the cable until you find the problem. 15 seconds sounds a bit long, unless the carb. is dry. |
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Expert
Posts: 1730
Location: Michigan | 15 secs is long... 5-7 secs at most. Is it hot only from cranking or when you just have it connected up to? The cables should be Number 1 or 2 in size. Anything smaller is going to struggle managing the current for the starter.
Your horn ring is probably stuck. Separate issue. |
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Expert
Posts: 2519
Location: central Illinois | Sounds like a dead short, like others have said the horn ring is probably stuck. Before hooking them up try a test. Turn everything off which means make sure dome lights do not come on by leaving door shut. If there's a clock pull fuse on clock so there's no draw on battery. When you're sure there's nothing drawing power removed negative cable and hook a test light or VOM between battery and cable and see if something is drawing current. You can systematically locate whatever is drawing power this way. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1112
Location: Wild Wonderful | Thanks for all your help everybody. You guys definitely know what you are talking about. When I was trying to
start this car a couple of years ago, I was cranking on it for a long time, and it melted the negative cable a little bit.
Recently, when I was cranking on it, I melted it a little more. So anyway, I replaced that cable. Earlier, I had the
engine apart, to get it unstuck. When I put it back together, I had the distributor 180 out. Long story short, I
ended up replacing the cable, fuel pump, coil, and battery. Now it is running again.
The horns are a funny story. When I was charging the old battery, I was standing in front of the car, when all
of a sudden the horns started going off. Now this would have been funny if one of my friends were in the car, but
I was all alone in the garage. So anyway I disconnected one of the horns, and that made it stop. After getting a
new battery, I was reaching inside the car to crank the engine, and I accidentally hit the horn. and it beeped.
That surprised me, because I thought that I disconnected them, but then I realized that I only disconnected
one of them. So that is my new problem. It has to be a short inside one of the horns, right? |
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Veteran
Posts: 174
Location: Camptown PA | When I upgraded my battery cables, I got confused and ordered Lengths of 1/0 wire and clamps instead of #1. Even though 1/0 is about 3 times thicker than #1 wire, I made the cables up and installed them - one of the best mistakes I ever made. Looks funny, but boy does it crank that engine and the wires don't get hot. Most of the problems I've found with the horns beeping were problems with the steering wheel horn switch grounding out when no one is pressing the horn button. The clearance between the horn button and ground are small, if anything is touching the horn will blow. You can also just consider the horn an unnecessary option and disconnect them. |
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I burnt it up
