Earth wire smoking

[bobby p]

Earth wire from bat to bulk head gets really hot an starts smoking and melting when I turn engine over. Any ideas what the problem could be? Shall I use thicker wire and change wire on gear box too or is it something more? Any info good please. It's a c20let engine.

[Mike]

Youve got no gearbox earth strap

[bobby p]

Not a strap just a pretty chunky cable about 12-15mm thick

[Benn]

You got grounding(earthing) probs some where.

[bobby p]

Is there just the earth on the battery and the earth on gear box or am I missing 1

[swedge]

there are a few earths on the engine its self, mainly on the inlet

also the wiper motor earths its self through one of the screws on its mounting bracket, pretty sure its the top right you could check that

i painted my bay and that gave me loads of troubles

[Edd]

Mine gets quite hot, is this normal?

[Stuart]

easy check, pop a jump lead from the engine to the -ve terminal on the battery and see if the bulkhead cable gets hot. if not then there is an earth issue with other connections.

[bobby p]

Were else would you recommend putting an earth?

[marc69]

I don't knwo about the 20 engines but everyotehr engine I have worked with, the altenator should have an earth

[Nobby]

easy check, pop a jump lead from the engine to the -ve terminal on the battery and see if the bulkhead cable gets hot. if not then there is an earth issue with other connections.

:thumb:

[TANKNOVA]

i had this on my v6 turned out to be a positive traped in the rocker cover so it was chucking a positive on to the block