i have a 95 3500 2wd truck. THe ground wire that goes to the master cylinder has melted on me 2 times. What is the possible solution. It happens randomly. Once got so hot it melted the emergency brake cable. Thought we had this fixed and it happened again today. Heard somewhere that it could be a bad master cylinder, does this make sense.

 

I can't remember a wire going to the master cyl. but the most common problem is a loose connection or wire gauge too small.

Floyd

 

the large ground wire going to the block is not making good contact. remove, inspect, clean and install using electrical grease. there is a jumper ground on the bottom of the chassis that gets corroded also. the best thing to do especially if you live in a area that salts heavy in the winter is to run two 8 gage wires directly from the negative post of the battery, one to the frame and one to the cab

 

If the ground going to block was bad wouldn't it have a hard to.e starting. I looked yesterday and couldn't fine a chasiss ground. Where is that located. My brother thinks it could possibly be a bad ABS box, chase that's the wire that keeps melting. Even though when it was melting the parking brake cable got red hot under the truck. This only happens every once in a while. I could go a week with no problem

 

I would think if the ABS module was "bad", a fuse would blow before a 16-ish gauge wire. Add a few grounds as stated above, one to cab, one to frame, and at least a jumper from frame to bed. I'd really focus on a frame ground primarily. When it burnt off, was there anything that stopped working? Also make sure that everything coming off that battery is fused. A friend of mine back fed a circuit that kept shorting out (blowing fuse) with a 16 gauge extension cord with no fuse. Burnt the wire off once, then started a small fire another time, luckily while he was around to shut it down before taking out the whole car.

 

intermittent loss of ground is his problem. if the altenator or starter has to go through the brake cable or the wire to the booster to get to the battery then that is what you see.

 

I used to see the same thing years ago with British cars. If the chassis ground were bad (corroded) the ground would go through the choke cables. It didn't take long to smoke them!

 

thanks for the help guys, it ended up being the ground that was missing from the chassis to the body. Gotta love this site

 

If you had a stray ground for any length of time you might want to check the pH of your coolant.
Stray power will turn the coolant acidic and eat your radiator and heater core rapidly.
This is called electrolysis.
The pH won't go back down on it's own, you'll need to change the coolant.
Some auto parts sell pH strips but even the strips from a swimming pool or hot tub place will work.

More info> http://www.erareplicas.com/427man/co...ysis/index.htm

 

Awesome post Bill,

Gonna check mine right away as I have noticed my 2yr old rad looking mighty rough the other day.

Might also confirm my battery life problems of late. I'm assuming coolant pH should be neutral (7)

Cheers

taz

 

7-8 is great..........

 

Bill, you always amaze me with the references you have on hand. I wish I knew you filing system to keep them all straight and available.

Floyd