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Greetings:
I read an interesting item in
the February 2011 edition of Popular Mechanics about
a very odd, but evidently not unusual, problem that
ended up being a battery grounding problem.
A person wrote into the Car Clinic columnist
asking what might be the cause of his CV joints
and wheel bearings wearing out very frequently -
in just a few months. Mike Allen, the host, replied
that the problem was being caused by a bad or missing
ground between the engine block and the battery's
negative terminal, while the ground connection from
the chassis to ground was good.
What was
happening was the high engine starter current, 100
A or more, was routing through the path of least
resistance - in this case through the metal wheel
bearings and CV joints. Who wouldda thunk???
Mike says he's seen the same thing before, and
even in an older car that had a metal pushrod cable
from the gas pedal to the carburetor, where it was
glowing red-hot during the engine cranking. It is
not just an annoyance, but a real fire hazard!
_________________ - Kirt Blattenberger
RF Cafe Progenitor & Webmaster
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