In January, I attempted to fire up my 80 L48 and the starter failed to turn the motor over. It wouldn't disengage after about 10 seconds so I removed the key. Still nothing. Then the fuse and wiring went and everything died. I had it towed to my house (thankfully only a couple miles away) and put it on the back burner as I was remodeling my house. Idaho winter was as good a reason as ever to justify not fixing it immediately.

Today, I had a friend who recently graduated from WYO TECH come replace the starter.

When we went to hook up the battery, I found this....


This was the terminal bolt...


With a new starter and new fuses all around my car is running beautifully. Not driving it for a month and a half really made me miss it. I love this car.

 

Wowza... burn baby burn!

 

The picture reminds me of why I don't care for side post batteries.

 

WOW!



Didst thou purchase a good fire extinguisher to complement the new battery?

 

Ha ha. Right?

 

That is scary!

Did that just come from a corroded connection?

 

That looks like the battery/cable had a dead-short condition. I'm not sure how that could be if you only had a bad solenoid and/or starter. From your initial info, I suspect the solenoid was defective...but not the starter. If the solenoid was mechanically locked in the ON position, the starter motor would have continued to run and that constant, high-current drain situation could have done that damage. But, I didn't get that from your post.

Therefore, I am concerned that you may have some kind of a wiring problem...a rub-thru on the main engine harness or on the starter wiring leads...that could be shorting out directly to ground. Please recheck your starter wiring leads, your engine harness, AND your positive battery cable to be sure there isn't some damage on them allowing a dead-short condition...for your safety!

 

I'm pretty certain the solenoid was locked in the on position. It kept trying to turn over and when I took the key out and put it back in to try and crank it again, that's when everything completely died. I thought there was a fuse in place to protect damage like this from being done to the battery. Maybe not. A couple of the wires coming off the starter were rubbed off in a couple places so those will definitely need replacing in the near future.

 

There is (or should have been) a fusible link in the solenoid wiring. It is just for that purpose. But, if a similar event happened some time in the past to this car, it may not have been replaced in the circuit. I strongly suggest that the fusible link be added back in to the circuit.

You were very fortunate that the battery did not blow up, nor the car catch on fire.

 

The fusible link attaches to the same post on the solenoid as the battery cable. It protects the rest of the car but would not protect in the event of a short within the solenoid.

 

I must disagree with that one. You can see the melting of the lead terminal on the battery. That's a lot of heat....much more than needed to melt a piece of [fusible link] wire. That link is a 'safety' feature to prevent a battery [and component] melt-down.

The starting system is supposed to be an 'intermittant' type system....short bursts of high current. Continuous use will damage that system fairly quickly.

 

I love 12 volt wiring, been into it for well over 30 years, learn new things all the time,
I have seen all kinds of crazy stuff done, people do things like replace fuse links with wire and replace old glass fuses with 22 bullets. my trikes coil was getting power from a tail light lead, and on high draw made the tail light strobe....I rewired the trike.

I admit when I think something is 1/2 assed or done more to save the factory a buck that the best way I redo it.

I can't seem to find a vette wiring diagram to check the "stock/factory" starter wiring but in my case on my 69 ( modded ) I have the ground cable from battery going to chassis/frame, the hot cable from battery is going to the hot lead on the starter which is where some of the cars accessory power is picked up and has the fuse link to pertect the rest of the car not the starter, but in my case on both my 69 and vw trike the hot lead going to the starter from battery has no fuse or breaker of any kind ( yes, I like breakers over fuses when I rewire ) this seems scary as I type it but the starter system is a high draw low run time idea...thats why it has the full large cables going to it.....I always assumed it would melt something on the starter end but seeing this melted battery terminal I will have to rethink adding a breaker to the hot lead to the starter up close to the battery hot side.

( some racers do it on the neg side for their good reasons...)

I will toss my guess out there, the path of most resistance will heat up the most, there was a short in the starter end and the negative terminal on battery was a little loose or just crappy, it is what gave up and got hot and melted.

When you replaced the starter end you removed the short that caused the battery terminal to melt......

 

I'm in agreement with 13Bats. . All the Hi current connections in the start system are copper to steel or copper to copper. Except for the battery terminals
Only the battery "posts" are lead. Thus they have a lower melting point.
There may have been a bit more resistance at the Negative terminal thats what caused the hotter connection

 

Lights and horn just fine but no starter working, just towed to the shop and I will report on this one.

Mechanical things can break and Mechanical things can be fixed.
But it can be a pain in the ***.


Wrecker driver asked year and mileage, I told him 2001 Convertible and 18,500miles. He asked to buy it.
NO WAY. My retirement daily driver. Stored all these years to have NOW.

 

It was only the starter this time, glad to have it fixed and back on the road with this beautiful weather.

 

Check your Corvette wiring diagram. The fusible links are shown. And, "fusible links" ARE regular wire...just smaller wire with non-flammable insulation and terminal ends.