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Starter getting hot and wire to battery smokin...

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Old 02-15-2012, 07:08 AM
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Starter getting hot and wire to battery smokin...

I finally got my rig (1990 Toyota 4Runner 4x4 3.0 V6; '90 body, '94 motor) together and when I go to crank it over starter doesn't shoot out at all and is dead I run to the nearest AutoZone and get a starter ('94) and get home and install it I go over and try to crank it and it turns once... twice...SLAM! The starter slams... I say ok maybe I need to jump the battery. I hook up the cables and wait a few minutes. I go to crank it over and SLAM! I hold it and it semi turns... then SLAM! I say wth... So I go check connections on the starter and everything is connected and ground is tight. I touch the starter and it feels as if im touching a hot iron. So I go and let it cool down. I come back crank it, hold the key forward for a couple of seconds and the wire from the battery to the starter starts smoking. /: I swap batteries (maybe there is too much juice) Still smoking... I've yet to figure out why..... Any ideas?

Thanks in Advance!
Old 02-15-2012, 07:26 AM
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Many a reman starter is a POS right off the bat. Best to rebuild OEM as its brushes, contacts and plunger.

Have your battery checked too.

Smoking and hot aren't good symptoms.

:wabbit2:
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Old 02-15-2012, 07:40 AM
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The battery is new. Would you know why the price difference for a 1990 starter and a 1994? The '90 was 73.99 and the '94 was 139.99. I got the '94 since thats the year of the motor. I had gotten the '90 before because my truck is a '90. But that was a dumb mistake so I got the '94 and that one gets hot too. When I crank it and I let go of the key you can hear the flywheel spin for a bout a second. (Thats when it turns over and doesn't slam) I literally screamed when it turned the first time I cranked it (This thing has been a head ache) and now the starter starts getting hot...
Old 02-15-2012, 02:48 PM
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Red face

Pray tell what do you mean slams???

It almost sounds like you have a almost seized engine. That is causing the starter to draw way to much current. Or timing so Fubar as to cause a problem like this.

Missing teeth on the ring gear??

While most starter issues can be fixed with solenoid contacts and new brushes . I never seem to be that lucky.

Bad bearings and shorted armatures seem to follow me like a dark cloud so then what?? Buy a new OEM Starter from the dealer??

I have so many dead starter pieces of both the starter sizes.
Old 02-15-2012, 03:42 PM
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The motor runs great. I think its impossible for that motor to have seized after 3 days of me pulling it. When I say slams i mean like if the battery wasn't charged up enough and you try and turn the car on. It turned over but once I try and start it once, after that the starter will get hot and obviously wont start the truck
Old 02-15-2012, 04:00 PM
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Sounds like the starter isn't properly engaging/disengaging the flywheel. Put it in gear, rock it back and forth to try and break it loose, and try again.
Old 02-15-2012, 04:01 PM
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Well the motor isnt seized I just went outside and cranked it over and it turned over many times but I have gas leaking into my drivers side manifold from the flange point. Why would this happen?
Old 02-15-2012, 07:57 PM
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The starter grounds through the transmission / engine block.
For the "hot" wire between the battery and starter to smoke would mean that the starter is drawing in excess of 800 amps. That's not likely if the engine spins "normally".

Seeing as how you just said you have gas leaking into the manifold, that could cause a hydraulic lock situation which could make the starter draw excessive amperage.

My next question would be:
What flange point are you talking about?

Something isn't making sense here.
Old 02-15-2012, 08:37 PM
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Alright sorry that was kinda confusing. The starter problem is fixed. it fixed overnight.. idk how. The fuel problem started after the starter started working because it wouldnt cycle when the starter wasnt engaging. So there is no more starter problem. Now I believe I have to swap distributors because i think its 180'd. if that makes sense. timing is off because the distributor which causes false signal to injectors and walaaaa I have fuel spitting out. Now the flange I was talking about is the one that comes off the exhause manifold on the drivers side. Where the exhaust piece fits in (3 bolts) Im hoping tomorrow once I swap distributors it will fire.
Old 02-15-2012, 09:25 PM
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Red face

I am more confused??

It runs fine but it doesn`t start??

Sounds to me like gas in the cylinders making the engine harder to turn over causing the starter to draw more current.

The gas is now pushed out of the engine so it cranks like it should. thus the gas leak at the junction of the exhaust manifold and the down pipe.

Although why it wouldn`t just run down the pipe makes no sense.
Old 02-16-2012, 07:49 AM
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I had a similar problem with my blazer a few years back, and the problem was that I bolted the ground cable to the chassis, it acted like the battery was olmost dead, and the tranny lines got red hot. bolted the cable to the engine and fixed the problem. will take you a few minutes to check your cables, hope this helps.
Old 02-16-2012, 08:48 AM
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I am more confused??

It runs fine but it doesn`t start??

Sounds to me like gas in the cylinders making the engine harder to turn over causing the starter to draw more current.

The gas is now pushed out of the engine so it cranks like it should. thus the gas leak at the junction of the exhaust manifold and the down pipe.

Although why it wouldn`t just run down the pipe makes no sense.
The starter problem is fixed. Now that the engine turns with a working starter it wont fully turn over and run because its leaking fuel out of the down pipe on the manifold.
Old 08-16-2018, 09:37 AM
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Smoking cable

So,I have a '92 Jeep Cherokee that recently was doing the same thing.Replaced starter and nothing.Found it is the big red cable that goes from the starter to the battery itself & it has a short or something somewhere within there causing the starter to not even engage.I have to wait until payday to replace the battery side i need a new one,cables & that red cable too,so if it acts up,I have to mess with it until the Jeep starts.Hubby put the battery from his Toyota in my Jeep too,and is causing everything to get so hot under the hood except my engine isn't overheating.That's scary yours is smoking,so I'm putting my battery back in when I get home & payday,I'm replacing things!
Old 08-16-2018, 10:26 AM
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Originally Posted by Lindsey Dahlin
So,I have a '92 Jeep Cherokee that recently was doing the same thing.Replaced starter and nothing.Found it is the big red cable that goes from the starter to the battery itself & it has a short or something somewhere within there causing the starter to not even engage.I have to wait until payday to replace the battery side i need a new one,cables & that red cable too,so if it acts up,I have to mess with it until the Jeep starts.Hubby put the battery from his Toyota in my Jeep too,and is causing everything to get so hot under the hood except my engine isn't overheating.That's scary yours is smoking,so I'm putting my battery back in when I get home & payday,I'm replacing things!

You have a hydro-locked Jeep with the distributor in backwards, are your sure cause that was this fellows problem...

You don't have a shorted battery positive cable, if you did your battery would be boiling hydrogen gas have swelled up and/or exploded spraying burning acid all over your engine bay.

What you have is a dirty or loose connection, you can solve this with a basic tool kit, a can of cola (preferably Coke, has the highest acidity), and a wire brush.

There is nothing special about the battery that makes it a Jeep or Toyota part. In 99% of circumstances the battery isn't doing anything, if the engine is running all of the power is provided by your alternator. However...

I bad electrical connection, be it a loose cable or dirty connection creates resistance to current flow (electricity essentially), resistance creates heat (you've seen those electrical heaters with the glowing wires I assume..). This is a cyclical process, heat increases resistance and resistance creates heat.

I'm not saying the cable isn't getting warm, I'm not in a position (IE in front of the vehicle) to gauge this.

Old 08-16-2018, 01:06 PM
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Like CO says above^^^.
Toyota parts are bullet-proof. Electrical problems are usually caused by bad connections.
Old 08-17-2018, 08:02 AM
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Red face

So sad people use Short and Open circuit to mean the circuit is not working

A Short if your lucky Circuit protection opens !! If your luck is bad The Fire Company comes to keep the neighbors houses from catching fire from your 4 or 5 Alarm Blaze

A Open Circuit is just that something has caused those evil electrons to not be able to bump around in a circle .

Might be a broken wire.

Loose or corroded connections
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Old 06-15-2023, 04:17 PM
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im having this exact problem in my 22re i changed my cam and now it cranks for a second then slams while i was tightening my headbolts i touched my tq wrench to the positive terminal and it sparked no fuses are blown or anything cant find any shorts im lost on what it could be any ideas?
Old 06-15-2023, 07:53 PM
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Originally Posted by CELICA1234
im having this exact problem in my 22re i changed my cam and now it cranks for a second then slams while i was tightening my headbolts i touched my tq wrench to the positive terminal and it sparked no fuses are blown or anything cant find any shorts im lost on what it could be any ideas?
When you touch the thick wire to the starter with a tool thay also has contact with metal ground you are ahort circuiting that thick wire with 12V to ground. A very dangerous event.
It is directly connected to tha battery so mo fuse will blow.
Old 06-16-2023, 01:53 PM
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The funny thing, to me, being a Radar Tech, is that a shorted wire is what you want. A wire should be a dead short. Not to ground, unless it's a ground wire, but end-to-end, the "shorter" (electrically) the wire is, the better. As pointed out above, resistance creates heat, creates, resistance, in a vicious cycle, until the circuit protector (fuse), or the wire in question, burns open. Circuit protector burns open, all well and good, that's what you want to happen. The wire burns open, it can take who knows what with it, including the rest of the truck.

Absolutely, look for bad connections at both ends of the wire in question, ohm out the wire itself, both end-to-end, and to ground. That will tell the tale! Make sure to remove the battery from the circuit entirely before ohming anything out. It only takes a VERY small amount of voltage in a circuit to blow an ohmeter.

Anywho, good fortune. After shorting the big, red, wire out, absolutely replace it. I'd wager that if it hasn't totally burned open, it partially has, and will burn eventually.
Pat☺
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