neg battery cable gets hot and sparks

[slipper]

worked fine a month ago but now when I hook up the battery there is a spark(witch never happend before) and when I turn the motor over I can see sparks around the neg battery cable, and the cable gets hot.
what would make this happen, I have not done any wiring or anything and ths has never happend before.
thanks
Regards,
Slipper

 

[robert graham]

Re: neg battery cable gets hot and sparks

That cable connection is loose or corroded causing a bad connection. Clean and tighten that cable end with a wire brush, maybe a dab of grease to keep water out of connections, you should be good to go! If cable is really old, beat up, corroded, then may be time for a new cable. Good Luck1

 

[slipper]

Re: neg battery cable gets hot and sparks

did that but still geting hot, is there another thing that could be causing this?

 

[pnwboat]

Re: neg battery cable gets hot and sparks

Sounds like maybe you have more that one problem. Battery cable getting hot is usually a bad or poor connection. Did you clean the connection where the negative cable connects to the engine block? To be sure, I would check all the battery cable connections, both positive and negative cables. Check positive connections on the starter solenoid, starter itself, and all grounds. If connections are OK, then you may have something drawing excessive current.

If you see sparks when starting, I would suspect that something may be wrong with the starter itself.

 

[john from md]

Re: neg battery cable gets hot and sparks

If the ground wire is getting hot, it is a high resistance problem. If it is an old cable, replace it and make sure it is the right size. Putting a #4 cable where you should have 00, will definitely warm things up.

John