Tonite I rolled my 85SE half way out of the garage to clean up a bit. I put the battery on charge while I worked. When I finished, the battery was fully charged and I started the car and backed it completely into the garage. About 15 minutes later, I decided to take the car for a ride but the starter just clicked - NO START after only one start on a full battery (!) This car had almost ALWAYS been slow to "crank" but I blamed it on the battery from sitting all the time or the relay on my START button.

I happened to look behind me and I saw a puff of smoke above the airbox. I got out and looked around and found the problem here.

[This message has been edited by PaulJK (edited 07-22-2007).]

A closer look showed the ground wire (right) was on the post (left) that also held the brace for the line going to the vapor canister. The post was loose from the car frame but the ground wire was securely nutted to the post ! This ground connects where the engine and trans bolt together. The smoke was apparently from arcing to the frame !

{Note: i took this pic after I gave the ground its own bolt }



I took a closer look at this POS post. The threads that hold it in are wide like a sheet metal screw and the top is a friggin torx ! If you look close you can see that the first thread below the base is missing - i guess that's a good reason for it being loose ! The post is now in the garbage where it belongs.

[This message has been edited by PaulJK (edited 08-11-2007).]

{nevermind }

[This message has been edited by PaulJK (edited 08-11-2007).]