Ground wire burning when trying to start car.

SRT-8Charger said:

I've had this problem after a shade tree mechanic changed the engine. Starter would barely crank over. Upon swapping engines, I found the problem.
There is supposed to be a heavy ground cable that runs from the Passenger strut tower to a stud on the bellhousing. It is one of the bolts that attach the transmission to the engine. Instead of a regular bolt, it has a small stud on top of it. This is where the ground goes.
The other end of the ground should go under the furthest rear ground stud with that four wire ring terminal. The stud is what's sticking up in one of the first pictures shown. It's threaded so you can get a good secure ground. Check the block side to make sure it's attached and is clean and tight.
This fixed my starter problem. This is the only way the ground gets to the engine. Unless it back feeds through the smaller wires and burns them up. Make sure and put the heavy cable and these wires on the same terminal so they have a good ground.
Mine blew the O2 sensor heater circuits because of this and the alternator.

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SRT-8Charger said:

Okay, the heavy black battery cable should run from the stud on the rear of the passenger strut tower. There is another set of ground wires, 4 I think crimped into a separate ring terminal arrangement. It has to go on the same stud as the battery cable. The other end of the battery cable runs to a stud on the transmission bolt. There are a couple of engine to trans bolts that have a small stud on the end of them. One should go in the hole directly under the pass. Head. Then the battery cable should go to that stud with a nut because that is a good clean ground location. The nut is a flanged nut with a free spinning washer formed onto it.
On the back of the head, there are a couple of ground ring terminals in the wiring harness that have about a 8mm bolt hole in them. Make sure all the grounds are attached. It may be easier to remove the intake to verify you have them all attached. I would also inspect the quality of the wires now that you have burnt them up by using them as the ground for the starter. I imagine you burnt one in two. Clean the ring terminals up with a wire brush as well as the head. Make sure you use a good clean bolt so that you make good contact. Dont use an old greasy, dirty rusty bolt.
There are also one or two more ground wires that attach to a stud on the front side of the strut tower. Make sure those are connected.
My small ground wires didnt burn up because they had spliced the starter cable wire together with a battery terminal repair end. Couldnt get full amperage through the system. This car was a nice car that some idiot(s) jacked up. Got it all fixed though and it was a nice car.

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