First off you cannot electcute yourself with a 12 volt battery. You can burn yourself from a hot wire.

the idea is to avoid touching the hot 12 volt wire to any ground point around the solenoid connection, not easy to do.

So, if you connect the wire to the solenoid yellow wire connection first and then touch the other end to the battery positive, you have eliminated the chance of grounding a hot wire. You will still get a good spark a the battery. If nervous, wear a glove or hold the wire with pliers when you touch it to the battery terminal. If you get a good starter spin by directly connecting to the starter solenoid, the starter is OK and i would then keep the yellow wire disconnected and connect a voltmeter between that wire and ground. Then have a helper turn the key to start and you should see 12 volts on the meter. If not, you may have an ignition switch or wiring harness problem. High heat from a bad exhaust shield or from a stuck key(on start) can melt the wires. However, the difference between 70 and 90 degrees shouldn't be enough to matte, since the temp of the wiring harness gets much higher under normal conditions with a good heat shield.

Anyway, I have a hunch your battery is bad and you have an intermittent internal short. It is most likely in the cell that tested dead. The fault only shows up under high current, which is why the dash lights still go on.



posted by 208.208.152...

• Touching starter connections to start the car..., Joe98, Wed, 14 Sep 2005 21:43:28
  • starter problems..., Tom G , Sat, 17 Sep 2005 05:25:34
    • Not yet..., Joe98, Sat, 17 Sep 2005 07:30:52
  • Thank you, Everyone..., Joe98, Fri, 16 Sep 2005 12:19:11
  • Method to try, JohnK, Fri, 16 Sep 2005 07:12:34 <-- Viewing This Message
  • Reason for doing this..., Joe98, Thu, 15 Sep 2005 07:08:16
    • My recent experience..., Sven, Thu, 15 Sep 2005 15:29:38
    • Re: Things to try, philbert, Thu, 15 Sep 2005 13:48:19
      • Or, with the start contact of the ignition switch., RayF, Thu, 15 Sep 2005 15:34:49
    • CT, Terry in CT, Thu, 15 Sep 2005 09:08:30
      • Re: CT, Joe98, Thu, 15 Sep 2005 12:17:54
  • Re: I've done it many times, couch tour , Thu, 15 Sep 2005 06:57:22
  • Re: Touching starter connections to start the car..., philbert, Wed, 14 Sep 2005 22:34:56

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