This past wednesday a few of us swapped engines into the Brat and I finally got everything hooked back up and bolted together today, but when I tried to start the Brat I completely FRIED the ground wire that is located at the end of the spare tire holder. The starter clicked once and then there was nothing. I saw smoke and turned it off, what could it be? any ideas? Thanks

JB I'm not sure what would cause that wire to fry, but you should check your other grounds as well. If you look at the Negative cable that comes from your battery, you will see it is connected right to the engine. I'd check that to see if it has a good contact.

 

Also, check your fuseable links to see if any of those are fried as well.

 

-Brian

Yeah, I didn't spend a lot of time figuring out what was wrong, but I'll check the next time I'm around there

Take a fire extinguisher with you next time

 

-Brian

Anyone out there know why this would happen?

 

-Brian

The same thing happened to a buddy of mine just last week on his '83 GL sedan. The positive cable from the battery to the starter had been pinched between the radiator hose and a bracket. The insulation wore through and it shorted to ground. It melted the insulation off both the positive and negative cables to the battery. The positive cable was only melted from where it had been shorted to the starter, and that part of the cable was hidden underneath the spare tire and other stuff. So when you looked under the hood, the first thing you saw was the melted negative cable coming from the battery. I wish I would have had my camera on board and taken some photos - It was pretty wicked looking.

 

I replaced both cables and everything was fine except the starter, which I replaced with a spare I had sitting around. After that he was good to go.

It sounds like the main ground lead connection to the motor may be bad as you said Brian. If the lead that got fried ties to the body and there is another ground lead to the body from the battery then the main cable to the engine must be making a poor ground connection somehow. This would make the starter motor current try to travel through the body ground path wires which are not able to handle that much current.

 

I doubt that this is your problem, but I have seen the starter lead short internally in the starter because the post connection had turned due to too much torque on the outside nut of the connection. This made the inside lead connection touch ground.

Before trying to start up again check the ground connections with a ohmmeter and look for a problem. Be sure to disconnect the battery before you do this.

All right I went back up ans checked today. I didn't get a good look to see if the battery cables were pinched, But I DID notice that some wiring that goes from the passenger side (EA81) and connects to the oil pump, a connect to the carb and a ground to the engine, so I hooked up everything there and tried to start the engine. The starter tried to turn over, but didn't seem like it was getting enough juice or that something was holdin the engine back (See new Post by SubaruJunkie) but it was closer than yesterday, so I don't know. Any suggestions?

Your starter may have an internal short. Also check the main ground cable, it may be bad.