I do know how to work on cars but electrical is a PAIN THE BUTT. I hate electrical. This weekend I'm gonna check the negative cable. The small one was clean, the main - cable is a pain in the bit to get to...thank you very much for your assistance. I will post this weekend when I will have a chance to get back to it. BTW, it was the cluster of negative, two I guess, that hook to the - post

 

Hi Jeff,
I do understand and was not saying you do not know how to work on them. You were looking for some assistance and this is what I used to do for 40 years and am just trying to help. And YES electrical does have its moments. From what you are telling me it really sounds like it is at the cable where both of the ground cables come together and are made into the end that goes on the battery. So you might find replacing the cable end might solve your problem. I have seen where the corrosion builds up on the inside of the end. But I would clean the large cable at the engine first. For once the cable develops a good connection it will take a while before the corrosion builds up and you loose connection again and then you are back at square one. BTW what area are you in?? Just curious and not being nosey.

Take care and let me know what you find.
Hope you have a good weekend.

 

Oh no don't misunderstand me, I was saying you we're questioning me and BELIEVE ME, I'm sure glad your helping me. My daughter is driving it now with no problems but it did the same thing, ran great for awhile then quit. I am going to put another cable on it, not just the end because she has my GRANDKIDS and you know how important they are and she is starting nursing school in January so she cannot be breaking down. I will probably do it Sunday, no time for anything these days.

I live in Angleton TX, it's south of Houston

 

Hi Jeff,
It looks like messages on the computer cn sometimes be interpreted the wrong way. BUT we are both on the same page!!!! I know about kids, grandkids, aw heck family in general !!!!!! Shame you are not closer and I could teach you a few tricks BUT Texas is just a wee bit too far. It is the "HOT" ground cable that is making me think it is the cable. And this only happened when trying to start it and each time you take the battery back there is nothing wrong with the battery. SO it has to be the cable. ANd I think you told me it was the small ground cable from the battery was the one that was "HOT". Again that leads me to the cable. I would have put a replacement end on the battery and tried it that way. And it would have cost you 2-3 bucks and a fast good or bad.

Let me know what happens. Sometimes things look clean but are not. That is where my meters come in handy.

I will be looking for you reply. Hey if I get you daughter's car running does that mean she owes me a house call?? Nah, I did not think so. ROTFLMAO

 

ASIAn Vehicles listen up folks !!!!!! most modern vehicles use a electrical wiring system that includes a ground system of wirring at least a complicated as the positive side. many of these ground terminal locations are BUSSED to a centrally located chassis structure. when off road or age get to these chassis bussed locations they cause corrotion and failed wiring harness ground ocures as well as over heated wiring harness which causes a nightmare of intermittant electrical failures .................
solution:
first test for a shorted circuit by doing this: with the ign off locat andlosen the negitive side of the battery terminal, gently lift this cable off the post watch for sparks....if sparks occure you have a shorted circuit. now to locat which circuit do this
with the IGN OFF locate and remove the fuse locatin inside the vehicle not the engine compartment. look for burned fuses but don't replace any yet there may be some but what your doing now is locating which harness system is at fault do that by pulling one fuse at a time and cdoing the original short test of touching the negitive teminal to the negitive battery post an watching for sparks. when you have no sparks you have found the shorted systems understand that systems get crossed circuited to each other when harnesses melt due to overheating shorted conditions. so you may have several fuses burned indicating a pair or group of harnessed wires melted together.
don't worry yet you can still fix it just pull all effected harness systems and open them up have a look watch for burned wires and the smell of melted insuklation you will find it and when yo do you will be able to corrct the issue once and for good. WARNING DO NNOT ATTEMPT THIS WITHOUT A TROUGHOUGH KNOWLEDGE OF ELECTRICAL THEORY.

 

the stater motor needs to be chacked out as well make sure that you have it chacked under full load conditions and the flex plate on the torque converter may be bent which effects the load of the starter .....if the starter is in a binding condition the neg cable will get hot attempting to provide power to the starter which is bound or binding this bind is intermittant due to a bent flex plate?

 

Blah, blah, blah... excuse me while I take a minute to puke..

 

johnny5ive,
Is this not the same guy would told us about a REV limiter and doing wonderful things to a automatic tranny???? There is a guy who needs his flex plate checked as well as his starter. I am not even going to comment on the Asian vehicle grounding problems. We all need to be AFRAID, VERY AFRAID. If this was Halloween I would think they were funny.

 

Randomortbit, I think you were exactly on, because when I cleaned that small ground wire, she has not had a problem. The rest of y'all, I don't know who your talking about but if someone puts any info on here to help someone, just accept it , check it and go on. Sounds like y'all don't like SOMEONE

 

Thanks for the support:
some folks are just threatened by general information, I don't know much about the Isuzu trucks I think I like them but some of the problems folks are having are really different from the experiences I have had with other types ( domestic U.S.A ) vehicles. the few things I have noticed that are really dofferent is the way that european vehicles because thay use lots of plastic in the structure , plastic that does not conduct eletricity. they incorporate some kind of conductive material specifically intended for the ground location contact. could be as simple as a metal bar with threaded lugs wich hold the collective of individual ground leads from everywhere around the vehicle.
other ways that this central location for chassis ground affects the design of a vehicle is in the stereo systems.
like computers that use a 3 wire system being one + positive
one - negitive and one common or neutral.
this is different from old style USA made systems which use a 4 wire system + left / + right and - left / - right and no common.
now if you are attempting to interface a 3 wire system with a 4 wire system unless an Inductor is used the interface will cause failures.
and the Knowledge of exactly where an inductor is placed in the circuit is vital to any successful electrical diagnosis. simply because and inducted negitive signal as seen by a DVM does not look any different from an earth ground, however isolated negitive signal will conduct either negitive or positive signal and when combine incorrectly to a 4 wire system the circuit created will fail especially during very low frequency output like say a strong bass tone signal or when say an alternative amplifier is intruduced because of the low pass signal filters which will function as a diode until they are over saturated and fail.
basically: if you connect a 4 wire system to a 3 wire system it does not work correctly and will fail DUH?
that is obvious the kinds of things that are not so obvious are the intricate impulse switches things that are very momentary "ON" condidtions. like your seat belt buzzer or the check engine light or maybe the thermal switch which controls your cold morning automatic choke these kind of switches can be manual or electrical but knowing what the vehicle is suppose to do when a given switch is triggered is not always obvious from the operators manual.
like what dexactly does the POWER button do or WINTER DRIVE button ?
and how are the seat heaters connected to the system how much electrical power do the heaters draw and what kind of a switch is that push button is it an instant on or momentary on.
WHY? because loss of electrical power will mean that the vehicle will not operate. people install after market stereos all the time and they don't relize that they are cross circuiting the impulse switches to dead shorts. which cause all kind of really fun and interesting electrical diagnostic experiments before they finally give up and throw a tarp over the vehicle and it sets in the back unused until it goes to the scrap yard.