what can this be

[beardy2]

ok if i turn the key to start the engine the negitive battery cable's ground wire gets really hot and starts to smoke, now there should be a smaller wire somewhere that is just melted all the way down to bare wire and i can not find one. i know that is is not the battery and not the starter that is making this happen. the only thing i can come up with is something is grounded out which in that case there should be abother melted wire like i already mentioned or something is wrong in the ignition. i am going to talk to the local mechanic tommorrow and see what he think but i also thought that i would ask you guys. if i need to i can put in the transmission in and the driveshaft and put the car on are car hauler and haul it somewhere but i dont know where to take the car to get inspected that i would not have to leave the car i would rather not do that. now if someone knows what is wrong with my car and can come out and help me fix it i am willing to pay or give my parents to go buy you beer or something i just want my car on the road. now i will try to get a pic of what the negitive ground wire looks like to so you can see how bad it is.
thank you

[shawnc16]

What kind of previous work was done? DId you have all the wires off the battery or something before?

[beardy2]

i got the car with no engine and transmission so i put that stuff in and thats it. and i take the battery cables off when i am not in the garage since this is going on with my wires so i take the cables off the battery so the car doesent start on fire or something since i cant seem to fix the problem.

[beardy2]

here are the pics

[shawnc16]

take a shot further away see we can see where this wire goes.. or may go.

[beardy2]

ok that melted wire is hooked to the negitive battery cable and it is bolted to the frame of the car on the other end

[beardy2]

ok here is your pic of the wire the wire is only about 8 inches. i know the pic is dark it is getting dark at my house and the camera has no flash

[lozanoa11]

just that wire is getting hot? clean the connetions and/or replace with bigger wire

[Caveman]

maybe you mxed up the wires to/from the started solenoid? no way that wire should get hot...espicaly just when the car on run or acc... double check your wires to/from the starter, battery, and solenoid...

[1BADAIR]

The little wire grounds the body and the large wire grounds the engine. Stick a jumper cable from the engine to the body and see if the issue goes away.
The large cable might have a bad connection or you need to ground the engine to the body

[beardy2]

ok i checked everything is hooked up right on the starter everything is sonected right to the battery. i do have a copper wire bolted to the back of the engine and bolted to the firewall. now there is a wire that comes out of the same spot as the ignition wires and it has a funky clip on the end but i took the old electrical tape off that wire and put new tape on but now the tape is really sticky but the wire doesent seem to get hot could this somehow contribute to my problem i will post a few pics tommorrow.

[Phantom409]

It sounds like there is PWR being put to the Neg. side of the batt.??
How old is your batt.??

We had a similar isue with our boat this year when we tried to start it the post would get smoking hot.
Never melted any thing but we got a new batt. and it fix the problem

[beardy2]

the battery is about 2 months old

[beardy2]

here are a few pics of the wire that is mixed in with the ignition wire it is the wire that i am holding on to. then i have a pic of the negitive battery cable to show you how it hooks up it is grounded to the altenator bracket. and then the wire circled in red and yellow is the wire that is burnt.

[shawnc16]

that red wire looks like it would go to the starter