Car Won't Start!!!

[SHOtymer]

Ok, left work yesterday, got in car started up, drove home, went inside grabbed 2 movies, went back out and car won't start. When you cut on the car it powers up and when you turn the key WITHOUT pressing the clutch it has power, but when you press the clutch in, still has power, BUT when you press the clutch AND turn the key ALL power shuts off, all lights go out, it's as if the battery was unplugged .. open the hood to check connections and the posi&negi cables on the battery are so f***ing hot!! Only thing that happened from the time i went to work and left work is it started raining mid day and I drove home in the rain. Short? but where? Seems as, If i did not need to press in the clutch the car would start..

 

[Mark in PDX]

You have a grounding issue it sounds like.. Clean the battery terminals first.
Check the connections under your dash (web shoes cause water on stuff).. Any of them doing funny things?
What year is this car? mtx obviously but the year helps.
Since you can't start with clutch in, the starter could have gone....
Mark

 

[SHOtymer]

Tis' a 91+ .. and I just replaced the starter 4 days prior ..

 

[SHOGIRL1994]

Make sure you reconnected all the wires properly after you did your starter. Sounds like you crossed a wires somewhere... this would cause it to short and act up and cause the wires to heat up like you described.

 

[SHOtymer]

Well, the wires finally melted, found that there was a screw going thru the battery cable (red) and the chassis ... but now when I connect the battery back up the starter justs keeps trying to crank the car even when the car is off.. ???

 

[220ksho]

Sounds to me like you have the positive battery cable connected to the wrong side of the solenoid. I hope the car wasn't in gear when you connected the battery. :-0


-Jeff