78703TX
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- Austin, TX
I've read about 10 posts so far about starters failing but haven't found a similar cause as mine so figured I would post it.
I recently got my first deuce and have been learning everything I can about it. I've been through a solid year of getting everything perfect on a surplus humvee so not a total newb but definitely have never had anything this massive before. When I got the deuce a few months ago everything seemed to work fine. I drove it about 2 hours to the south Texas ranch property where it now lives and it ran like a top. After a few weeks it wouldn't start and found I had dead batteries. They were somewhat worn so I figured I'd replace them anyway because getting stuck miles from the cabin while thermal hunting for hogs can result in a poor night's rest. As I replaced the batteries I figured I might as well throw in a cutoff switch so when it's parked for weeks at a time I wouldnt have to worry about a parasitic draw. Me, not thinking about the massive draw on 2 group 65 batteries decided to buy the cheap plastic battery disconnect and extra terminal connection from autozone. Big mistake. As I was driving home from a hunt last week the headlights started flickering, followed by tons of electrical smoke. I pulled over as quickly as I could and killed the engine. Popped the hood and there looked to be smoke coming out of the massive starter motor. I opened the battery box and sure enough the negative terminal in the wire linking the 2 batteries along with the cheap switch were both sizzling. I'll skip past the part where I had to call a giant wrecker in from 3 towns over and paid through the nose.
I came back today with 4 new "military spec" battery terminals and new 2/0 cables to replace the ones effected in the meltdown. Got everything hooked back up and everything- lights, gauges all work. When I go to crank it (mine has a keyed ignition) the gauges move and I hear a clunk noise over the sound of air buzzer, but nothing even begins to crank. I have read there's a way to cross the posts on the starter with 2 screwdrivers, prybars or whatever to test it but I'm not sure which 2 posts to use and I don't want to fry anything further. Can anyone verify this? I unfortunately do not have a voltmeter with me but want to try something to test the starter. Judging by the smoke coming out of the starter when the battery terminal fried, I'm assuming that will be my issue. But I want to be sure before pulling it out. The wiring between the battery hot terminal and the solenoid looks fine so I would wonder how so enough juice got to the starter to fry it without burning up the wire..does anyone have any ideas on that?
Thank you for reading and I look forward to hearing from yall.
PS I found the original reason the batteries were dying was because my fan belt was so worn it wasn't turning the alternator. That has been fixed and the batteries have been showing full charge since.
I recently got my first deuce and have been learning everything I can about it. I've been through a solid year of getting everything perfect on a surplus humvee so not a total newb but definitely have never had anything this massive before. When I got the deuce a few months ago everything seemed to work fine. I drove it about 2 hours to the south Texas ranch property where it now lives and it ran like a top. After a few weeks it wouldn't start and found I had dead batteries. They were somewhat worn so I figured I'd replace them anyway because getting stuck miles from the cabin while thermal hunting for hogs can result in a poor night's rest. As I replaced the batteries I figured I might as well throw in a cutoff switch so when it's parked for weeks at a time I wouldnt have to worry about a parasitic draw. Me, not thinking about the massive draw on 2 group 65 batteries decided to buy the cheap plastic battery disconnect and extra terminal connection from autozone. Big mistake. As I was driving home from a hunt last week the headlights started flickering, followed by tons of electrical smoke. I pulled over as quickly as I could and killed the engine. Popped the hood and there looked to be smoke coming out of the massive starter motor. I opened the battery box and sure enough the negative terminal in the wire linking the 2 batteries along with the cheap switch were both sizzling. I'll skip past the part where I had to call a giant wrecker in from 3 towns over and paid through the nose.
I came back today with 4 new "military spec" battery terminals and new 2/0 cables to replace the ones effected in the meltdown. Got everything hooked back up and everything- lights, gauges all work. When I go to crank it (mine has a keyed ignition) the gauges move and I hear a clunk noise over the sound of air buzzer, but nothing even begins to crank. I have read there's a way to cross the posts on the starter with 2 screwdrivers, prybars or whatever to test it but I'm not sure which 2 posts to use and I don't want to fry anything further. Can anyone verify this? I unfortunately do not have a voltmeter with me but want to try something to test the starter. Judging by the smoke coming out of the starter when the battery terminal fried, I'm assuming that will be my issue. But I want to be sure before pulling it out. The wiring between the battery hot terminal and the solenoid looks fine so I would wonder how so enough juice got to the starter to fry it without burning up the wire..does anyone have any ideas on that?
Thank you for reading and I look forward to hearing from yall.
PS I found the original reason the batteries were dying was because my fan belt was so worn it wasn't turning the alternator. That has been fixed and the batteries have been showing full charge since.
