Hello everyone I’m new here, just picked up my 2nd car this past summer. It’s a 1964 galaxie 500xl in pretty rough shape. The car hadn’t been started in years when I got it. I just bought a brand new 24f agm, the car turns over, brand new ignition switch and wiring to the solenoid. Upon charging the battery, the cars starter began smoking, not billowing or any thick smoke, just light smoke. After seeing this I went to disconnect the battery charger and the positive wire clamp coming from the solenoid was melted to the positive terminal on the battery. I’m just wondering if anyone could help out, just wanna know where to start with, bad starter or the solenoid? Or even the grounds? And of course all the battery wiring will be replaced after this.
Hi. Possible your problem was caused by trying to start engine while charger hooked up. Likely you have a max 10 amp or even less capacity charger and your starter is very high current draw. That could cause clamp to melt to battery post. Did you start by removing battery wires and cleaning battery posts and battery connectors? If not they will not pass much current. If your battery will not charge enough to turn the engine over without charger connected start with the battery. If you do not have the test equipment to check starter remove it and take to a rebuild shop or mechanic where they can check the load on starter to see if it needs rebuild or not. Good luck, Jim Is this answer helpful?
Thank you Jim for the quick response. Just to clarify, I tried to start the car without the charger connected. The battery was charged a few days ago and I tried to start it then, the car turned over without a charger or jump pack but didn’t start. There was some light smoke coming out of the starter then. These are my first attempts at trying to start the car and the first time it has been started since who knows. Today I had to charge the battery, it’s cold out and it drained from before being that it was not fully charged to begin with. I was just looking everything over and saw smoke coming from the starter as the car was just sitting charging. I went to remojve the charger and battery cables just in case, not to toast the battery since it’s brand new, or feed to whatever isn’t happy. When I did this the positive cable clamp coming from the solenoid wire to the battery was melted into the battery terminal and the ends of the wire were burnt. I’m working on removing the wires now and will just replace them they are old and slightly melted now
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