S10 ground cable melted off battery?

Question

This is an offroad truck. Has the 4 cylinder. Drove it hard for a while, stalled out all of a sudden, and no power. I opened the hood and the ground terminal had melted right off the battery and was glowing red. I also noticed the exhaust header was glowing red. Where do I trace wires back to in order to get this junk running again?

I'm assuming the glowing hot exhaust header melted a positive wire to ground or something

David · Accepted Answer

Do I read this right - the post had melted off the battery? Sounds like you have had a massive short circuit, sure enough. So track down the short using a test light or multimeter, replace and reroute the wire, fit a new battery and you may find it goes again.
I'd check the starter cable first - most other cables are protected by fuses or so light they'd melt before the battery did...

Technobuff · Answer

I'd also look into why the exhaust header would get red hot. Is it non standard?
The short would have to be the battery cable, but the positive one, not the earthy one. The earthy one melting simply means it was not as thick as (or in worse condition than) the positive lead.
Smaller wires shorting would have burned before the battery cable could.

Andrew · Answer

Melted? as in melted from current? or the manifold melting it from radiant heat?

To my knowledge, the radiant heat from a manifold glowing red wouldn't be enough to come close to melting a copper ground cable..   Check for corrosion on both ends of the wire which can cause resistance and in turn create massive heat.

? · Answer

Okay, check all the wires running near the headers and move them. Replace the ground wire and go home

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S10 ground cable melted off battery?

4 Answers