Crawling around under the Beast yesterday and noticed this braided cable-end dangling down looking for a home. Any ideas?
Yes, that's a typical engine to frame ground cable. Find out where the end was supposed to be bolted and replace it there. It might be missing a bolt, or it might have been removed when something was repaired and not put back in place.
See if this picture helps. Mine also has a ground wire running from the cab to the top starter bolt. Also, when you attach a file it has a insert button at top left. Click on that and you can select full image so you don't have to open the image in a window.
Hey NH...thanks for the pic. I do have a lot of the manuals needed to find things (thanks to an un-named forum benefactor), but this pic is one I did not see. I was thinking the same thing about it coming from the starter to ...the frame? I have to get really dirty to find the location and unfortunately I have not had time to do that just yet -- as well as a bunch of other checks I need to make on this new-to-me-machine. I know ground wires can cause a sh*t-tone of problems, but I am totally new to this area of heavy equipment - I'm more of truck guy. I hope with advice and guidance from folks like you and others who have already helped me, that in time, I will become competent enough to be able to advise others. As for the image size, I thought it was desirable to stick to smaller "thumbnails" for initial load times, then let the viewer decide if they/he/she/them/insert preferred pronoun here , decide to view or not. But this is great help. Thank you for the image and advice. R
Something that i learned when dealing with those braided ground cables is to make sure that the cable end is shiny bright metal clean and the same goes for all the washers, nuts, bolts and especially the steel surface it’s all bolted against. I redid the ground cable attachment once and I must not have gotten it clean enough because the machine was extremely hard to start. Finally I went back and re cleaned the frame-to-braided-cable attachment point and the machine fired right up every time. It made a huge difference. I’m not sure but it may be that the little bit of rain water gets into my cab drains right onto the connection and causes it to rust. I got to double check that. But you get my drift.
Does yours still have the negative cut off switch?
There is a stud on the side of the frame that this along with the one side that goes to the negative cut off switch. My guess is that it lost its nut somewhere along the way. I just redid all my cables because my pos and neg cables were in really bad shape.
Gotcha. Working on restoring an old Ranger pickup I bought new in 94 - young compared of some of these big boys - but spent a lot of time chasin ghosts (ground wires). Clean and shiny for sure. Thank you for taking the time to post. Hey Cos, I have no freakin' idea about the cut-off. It's pouring out now, but I was out sitting in the cab anyway enjoying the peace and quiet (if you know what I mean). I came in to transfer the info I received from you onto my laptop so I can get back out there. I'll post back later. thank you, R
Hi Cos, I was not able to locate the Disconnect Switch as described on page 259 of the service manual: Battery Disconnect Switch The battery power can be effectively turned off by use of the disconnect switch attached to the negative chassis cable mounted below the fuel injection pump. But it was pouring and I didn't stand in it too long
You can’t miss it if you have one, which I assume you do. It
DOH! I have that. I was looking for a little on/off switch. Someone has removed something from the bottom of mine and did not replace it. I noticed it the other day but haven't had time to trace it. Hmmmnn....
I removed the negative disconnect when I put new cables on. I didn't use it and figured to eliminate it. My battery ground now goes direct from the negative terminal to the starter.
Just looking through the parts and service manuals and I am betting the ground cable is the "something that was removed and not put back."
Starter must be wired directly to the battery for it to run is my guess. If not it wouldn’t be able to run.
Yeah, agreed. I still learning so much about this machine - it seems to run and operate just fine, but I find little things that are puzzling to me. I know it's a 26-27 year old machine. I'm pretty certain it was in a fleet leasing company based on what the dealer told me and a couple of decals left on her. Human nature tells me that when it was new it was probably well-maintained. Then as it aged, things were just fixed to keep it running. That's where the puzzling things come into play. So I am taking my time and reading thru the manuals while sitting in the Beast, taking notes and not jumping into anything major at this point. I'll leave the ground cable hanging for now until I have more time to see what the PO did.
I was wrong. looks like the negative cable (2) is the thing that wasn't replaced as that terminal on the cut-off is empty. The ground wire (1) is in place on the cut-off. The other ground cable is still hangin.'
Maybe they bypassed the shutoff??
Or they ran the cutoff directly to the starter without going to the frame first. Best way to see if it works is to turn the knob and see if you have power in the cab. If you have power, then its bypassed. If you don't have power then it's still in place.
I rewired the starter circuit on my 555e, here is a video that shows where one of the ground cables connects.
Hi Nick, Thanks for the vid. I think what went on with mine and why there is the unattached ground cable is that the PO by-passed the battery cut-off switch and didn't reattached that ground cable to the cut-off. I may, at some point, reconnect the cut-off to return it to factory spec. Again, thanks for the vid. It is very clear in the description where everything is supposed to go.