Woodard2589

i have an 89 mustang and lately had problems with it starting hard when warm, turned out the battery was junk. so i bought another one a redtop just like before. put it in and the car started perfect, after long drives though it slowly started getting harder and harder to start. then the other day i drove to walmart and when i went to leave the car turned over really slow like before the battery change. so after a few tries and the voltmeter showing a full battery the car lost all power. so i checked in the hatch where my battery is and popped off the cover to the battery box to see that the - terminal had pulled almost all the way off from the post and that the + terminal had melted where the wires clamped on the terminal at. so i turned my battery off and shoved the + cable thru the screw hole that had completely melted to tighted the wire to the terminal and the car started right up perfectly. so i turn the battery back off with my switch so nothing happens to it on the way home and i had it running less than a minute before it died, the voltgauge kept fluxuating quite a bit, im not sure if its from the cam or not. so i turned the battery back on, drove down the street and pulled into a parking lot to turn it back off and just decided to try to keep the car reved, up, well didnt even make it back to the street before it died, so i said **** it and just kept the battery on. when i got home i checked the wires again and they werent even warm. so does anybody have any idea why this happened? my uncle thinks the battery is just junk and its shorting out inside of it, but seems kind of odd because the battery is a week old. im going to take the battery to be tested either tomorrow or friday, but have no time today. the melting must of been happening on and off and slowly getting worse the longer i drove it each day since everyday it got a little harder to start up. also when it does start up when its warm it wants to die right away and i have to rev it up a few times before it idles good. (this problem also has been getting worse as the week went on). any help would definately be appreciated

corvetteguy

When you moved your battery to the
rear of the car what gauge wire did you
use?

Woodard2589

i had problems before with the car not starting when warm so how i solved it before was running a 00 wire from the block to the batter from the switch and another 2 or 4 gauge wire to the chasis. i think the + wire is like 2 or 4 gauge, i dont remember without looking. the setup worked fine for the past 6 months. i was planning on removing the battery to motor ground and just strapping the motor to the chasis with a nice sized wire and possibly beefing up the battery to chasis ground but now the problem came back.

corvetteguy

I am not sure of the 2 or 4 gauge.
A long length of high gauge wire
will act as a resistor to the power
and will heat up a lot.
You should use a gauge size two
time thicker than the original for
the long runs. That means a special order
wire.

My guess is that over time the connections
ends have corroded a little and made the
problem worse.

You can double up or tripple up additional
wires to make up the gauge loss.

When you are throwing around 50 or so amps
the problem can really be seen.

Woodard2589

from what i've seen online the wires i ran are usually bigger or the same size that everyone else runs. also i've double checked all the connections and cleaned up all grounds just in case. do you think its melting when im trying to start it up warm? or just after its been running a while? i think im going to ground the motor to the chasis tomorrow to see if it helps the problem. im just scared of ruining my brand new batter if it doesnt help.

TI302

2 or 4 gauge should be fine. you said your ground wire was almost off? if your ground wire came off your battery shouldnt have been able to short or fry wires, unless the negative wire touched the power wire. i would suggest cutting the power wire near the terminal, replacing it and fusing it. from there make sure your connections are all good. from there, if you have a problem between your fuse and your battery its probably your battery, if you have a problem after the fuse, its something under the hood. if the battery becomes ungrounded your voltage should read nothing