Sad day when 4 threads out of like 15 belong to the same person but here I am again :)

Finished putting in my rear driveshaft U-joint and drove up to O'Reillys. Drive home and everything started no problem. Went to start it again in my driveway and it wouldn't turn over at all, weird sound but nothing else. Tried a few times with no luck, ended up putting a trickle charger on in case battery was weak. A few hours later I gave it another shot and nothing, but when I looked under the hood, I saw smoke coming from the positive cable off the battery where it connected to this ( picture below). Not sure what this part is, forgive me if it's obvious. The positI've battery wire was so hot it actually melted where it connected to whatever the piece is. Not sure what caused it, it started and ran fine till this happened. What is the part where the positive wire connects? One picture is the part it connected to and the other is the melted positive battery cable.

That's your starter solenoid. Could be bad...

Like Eck said your solenoid is bad. From the pictures it looks like you had a loose connection internally. That's common in that style solenoid. It doesn't look like the cable end was damaged so just replace the solenoid. Probably around $15 to $20 from your local parts store.

Thanks guys, one more trip to O'Reillys =)

Buy two. Put one in your Bronco toolbox. Seriously.

So I bought another starter solenoid, put it in, and when I hooked up the positive wire back to the battery it arced. Checked to make sure it was hooked up right and tried again and another arc. Disconnected everything and pulled out the solenoid and the connection for the positive wire was loose. Swap it out at O'Reilly's and put new one in and it won't start.

I've checked everything multiple times to make sure it's hooked up tight and still nothing. I have a few pics of the solenoid hooked up and the wiring around it. Can someone take a quick look and see if maybe I swapped something? Only one I wasn't sure of was a wire coming from the negative battery terminal grounded to the bolt where the solenoid is connected to the body. Went back and looked at a pic I posted here before and it seems to be Connected at the right spot.

Tried uploading a short video so you can hear the sound it makes when I turn the key but it never attaches the file. Can short videos be uploaded? Could I have ruined the starter itself with that arc? It was quick but I know anything with electricity can ruin things. Long post, thanks for the help.

Alex

Looks right.



Disconnect the ignition switch behind the dash, hook everything up at the solenoid, and see if you still have power on the large post on the right. If I'm reading everything correct, and I may not have, I think you might have a bad ignition switch.

Where are your grounds? Where does the large negative cable from the battery run to? Engine block? Frame? Anything grounding the engine to the body or frame?

Just balling here.

It's very possible that the damage to the original solenoid was caused by a shorted starter. You might want to have that checked out.

I checked the wire setup from the previous posted picture to verify it was all hooked back up right and it seemed to be. After leaving it on a trickle charger two days I checked the voltage of the battery and it was perfect. Turned my headlights on to see how they did when starting it and my headlights died instantly. Decided to run to wal-mart and grab a new battery just in case and after putting it in, it started up instantly. The date on the battery was summer 2007, 8 years not bad.

That's a win!

Congrats! That had to feel good.