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Distributor ground wire melted at clip in middle of wire; What caused it to get hot ??
Topic Started: Aug 1 2015, 10:55 PM (2,553 Views)
toms95geometrolsi
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Èngine starts ok but won't Rev up when under load. Have had it to several shops and no one can find what's wrong. Today I noticed that the distributor ground wire melted at the clip. Why did it get hot and why does it have a spade type clip in the middle. ?
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Hotrodray1
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Over Educated parts guy

Bad ground it is trying to do it thru wire on distributor. Check the one from battery to transmission and to inner fender.
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RONNIEREDLINE
METRO MAD MAN

i agree, its trying to get a ground through the distributor and so on.
a loose connection causes high resistance, high resistance means electric cant flow through it easily and when you have high resistance it makes heat, thus melted wires.
its like a culvert pipe in your driveway, when its full your circuit is fully loaded when it over flows you have a short circuit.
everyone says electric and water dont get along, well they are really best friends and work real well together because electric flows through water easily, its just bad for who is touching the water.
you see a river is alot like electric:
the water is the electric, the voltage is the water, the current is how strong the water(electric) is, thus current is what gets you, even people that get struck by lighting survive because it has lower current and higher voltage, current is what gets you. yes voltage is dangerous but current is the culprit.
just trying to help
redline
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toms95geometrolsi
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Thanks so much for the advice...
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toms95geometrolsi
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The only wire going to the manifold is going to a 6 sided gizmo that looks simular to a spark plug. Do I take that off to clean the ground? ?? :news
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David95237


You need to clean the ground on the transmission. Its probably loose.
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myredvert
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myredvert

Unless the "6 sided gizmo" you are talking about is a bolt, then the answer to your question is... no. And the grounds on the back of the intake are not likely to cause an issue with your distributor ground.

Can you post pictures of the wire you are talking about? We know what it is, but we need to see the wire, the connector, and also a picture of where/how it is connected on each end.

One possibility is that the regular ground wire was replaced with one too small. The connector doesn't sound "stock."

And, if it is connected at either end in the wrong place it could cause too high of resistance and make it heat up.

And as David just posted, that ground from the battery to the transaxle is a big one, importance wise.
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freegeo
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toms95geometrolsi
Aug 3 2015, 12:03 AM
The only wire going to the manifold is going to a 6 sided gizmo that looks simular to a spark plug. Do I take that off to clean the ground? ?? :news
It sounds like you are talking about the engine coolant temp sensor. The bolts for the grounds swill be in the back of the intake below the throttle body. Blue arrows in pictures.

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toms95geometrolsi
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I did get the two grounds on the fenders (left & right ) cleaned and the ground from battery to tranny and yes it was loose.. the grounds below the throttle body I haven't gotten to yet. Have to wait till next weekend for that . But the car just runs worse everyday .. It will still start ok.. but now wont even rev up sitting still unless i work the peddle just right . Took me 5 minutes to get it up a 7" ramp. I'm starting to think it's not a ground issue after all. Because after I found the loose wire at the tranny ground and cleaned it up and tightened it down. I checked for arcing and where was none so that loose bolt was the cause of the melted clip and arcing issues I had earler. So I pulled the spark plugs one at a time to see now strong the spark was and all 4 of them were jumping a yellow spark down to the tool box I had sitting on the fender . So a yellow spark means it's a weak spark and that points to the coil being bad, right??? :hmm
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myredvert
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myredvert

Can you post pictures of the wire you were originally talking about, and pictures of where it is connected on both ends?
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freegeo
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toms95geometrolsi
Aug 3 2015, 01:55 AM
I did get the two grounds on the fenders (left & right ) cleaned and the ground from battery to tranny and yes it was loose.. the grounds below the throttle body I haven't gotten to yet. Have to wait till next weekend for that . But the car just runs worse everyday .. It will still start ok.. but now wont even rev up sitting still unless i work the peddle just right . Took me 5 minutes to get it up a 7" ramp. I'm starting to think it's not a ground issue after all. Because after I found the loose wire at the tranny ground and cleaned it up and tightened it down. I checked for arcing and where was none so that loose bolt was the cause of the melted clip and arcing issues I had earler. So I pulled the spark plugs one at a time to see now strong the spark was and all 4 of them were jumping a yellow spark down to the tool box I had sitting on the fender . So a yellow spark means it's a weak spark and that points to the coil being bad, right??? :hmm
Glad to hear you found your loose ground and got it fixed.

In regards to the weak spark, I would try and retest it making sure the spark plug or tester you are using has a good ground. Ground it to a clean metal bolt or ground wire bolt. If you are getting a good spark it should be a white to a white / blue color. A red or orange color indicates a weak spark.

Have you or the place you took it to do a compression test on the engine?
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MR1 Kingsbury
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Exp. builder/rebuilder

Speaking of distributor wires... If the dist isn't timed right and much retarded, then the engine will act much like you describe. low power, won't rev proper, and will sound loud under the hood.

make sure you didn't loosen or disturb the distrib position.

MR1
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toms95geometrolsi
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MR1 Kingsbury
Aug 3 2015, 10:04 AM
Speaking of distributor wires... If the dist isn't timed right and much retarded, then the engine will act much like you describe. low power, won't rev proper, and will sound loud under the hood.

make sure you didn't loosen or disturb the distrib position.

MR1
The timing was done at a shop in town and ran much better for two twenty mile trips that day and the next but on the 3rd day I drove it to work 35 miles one way. And by the time I got there it was starting to show some hesitation leaving stops again .. but after work it was worse. It was pulling away slow, like crossing the intersection at 3 to 5 mph then taking off just fine as long as the road was not up hill . If I could get up to 20 or above by the time I got to a hill it would make it fine . But there were 2 small up hill grades just after stop signs. That the car Litterly crawled up , not even walking speed. All the way to the top. Then down the other side it was fine again. Down the ramp and onto the highway 55 to 65 all the way into my home town where there are several more hills but was lucky there. No stops just before hills . Made it home. But the next day it wouldn't pull it's own weight up a 7" ramp. Not even taking a run at it . After a dozen attempts taking 20 foot runs at the ramp could only get 3/4 the way up so stopped there revved it up slammed it into drive and got on top . WOW what an effort. Just to get up a cheep little 40. Dollar Walmart ramp in my driveway. This car has 233,680 miles on it . No smoke in the exhust. Ran great before this started up . Now and then I would strap my canoe to the top and drive 100 or so miles to a stream I like to paddle on. But I can't do that until it's fixed. Buy the way I've tried all the gears 1st 2nd drive and reverse their all the same. . One other thing for the past several years it has had a hard time after a rain or foggy mornings. It would run rough going up hill. Like it was running on only 3 of its cylinders. But would alway kick in at the top of the hill and be fine for the rest of the day even running into a downpour no problem. . I can't figure it out several shops in town haven't been able to either. I'll check the compression and recheck the timing , the spark on the plugs useing a better ground., next weekend . And I'll try to get the picture of that sensor / ground , on the manifold before I go to work tomorrow. Thanks everyone for the suggestions I need all the help I can get .. I'm not much under the hood though I've been doing my brakes and tune ups for over 40 years.
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myredvert
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myredvert

Quote:
 
And I'll try to get the picture of that sensor / ground , on the manifold
There still may be something there. You had earlier mentioned "spade connector," which isn't standard and may be an indication the wire has been altered.

Also, it should be connected from a bolt on the coil bracket to the engine block at the base of the distributor. We just saw one not too long ago that had been connected to the wrong location and was getting hot...
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freegeo
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toms95geometrolsi
Aug 4 2015, 03:51 AM
MR1 Kingsbury
Aug 3 2015, 10:04 AM
Speaking of distributor wires... If the dist isn't timed right and much retarded, then the engine will act much like you describe. low power, won't rev proper, and will sound loud under the hood.

make sure you didn't loosen or disturb the distrib position.

MR1
The timing was done at a shop in town and ran much better for two twenty mile trips that day and the next but on the 3rd day I drove it to work 35 miles one way. And by the time I got there it was starting to show some hesitation leaving stops again .. but after work it was worse. It was pulling away slow, like crossing the intersection at 3 to 5 mph then taking off just fine as long as the road was not up hill . If I could get up to 20 or above by the time I got to a hill it would make it fine . But there were 2 small up hill grades just after stop signs. That the car Litterly crawled up , not even walking speed. All the way to the top. Then down the other side it was fine again. Down the ramp and onto the highway 55 to 65 all the way into my home town where there are several more hills but was lucky there. No stops just before hills . Made it home. But the next day it wouldn't pull it's own weight up a 7" ramp. Not even taking a run at it . After a dozen attempts taking 20 foot runs at the ramp could only get 3/4 the way up so stopped there revved it up slammed it into drive and got on top . WOW what an effort. Just to get up a cheep little 40. Dollar Walmart ramp in my driveway. This car has 233,680 miles on it . No smoke in the exhust. Ran great before this started up . Now and then I would strap my canoe to the top and drive 100 or so miles to a stream I like to paddle on. But I can't do that until it's fixed. Buy the way I've tried all the gears 1st 2nd drive and reverse their all the same. . One other thing for the past several years it has had a hard time after a rain or foggy mornings. It would run rough going up hill. Like it was running on only 3 of its cylinders. But would alway kick in at the top of the hill and be fine for the rest of the day even running into a downpour no problem. . I can't figure it out several shops in town haven't been able to either. I'll check the compression and recheck the timing , the spark on the plugs useing a better ground., next weekend . And I'll try to get the picture of that sensor / ground , on the manifold before I go to work tomorrow. Thanks everyone for the suggestions I need all the help I can get .. I'm not much under the hood though I've been doing my brakes and tune ups for over 40 years.
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Buy the way I've tried all the gears 1st 2nd drive and reverse their all the same.


Is your car an auto then? If it is there is a chance that the car maybe trying to take off in 3rd gear. Try manually shifting it to see if it helps with the slow take offs.

Quote:
 
This car has 233,680 miles on it .


Good chance your compression is not what it use to be.
Edited by freegeo, Aug 4 2015, 09:14 AM.
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