1887 Fleetwood Tioga, E-350, 460, motor stalled

[Jim290]

Hi, I'm stuck, all packed for the road, and had my RV running and was in the drivers seat and smelled rubber burning. Looked under the hood and a little smoke was coming from the main battery, and the motor died. I found one wire that looked like it had fried, and spliced it back together. nothing. will crank, but not start. connected to the relay where the positive battery cable is attached. New fuel pump and relay put in a few weeks ago, and has ran fine.
I could sure use some help,
Thanks! Jim

[Skip426]

Welcome to iRV2; sorry you're here with problems.
If you burnt up a wire , that you can see , chances are there are issues further down that wire that you can't see, yet.
Trace the burnt wire , till you get to a fuse box, or alternator, ignition switch , where ever it goes. Something shorted out to melt the wire, the cause of the sort has to be repaired , not just the wire.

[Skip426]

Any chance you could post a picture of the damage ?

For info on posting photos , go to the " FAQ " drop box in the blue bar under your welcome message.

[Jim290]

yep, on it

[Jim290]

Skip I uploaded 5 photos, but I don't see them

[Jim290]

Since I don't see the photo's, I don't know where they went, but there is no damage visible. I'm not 100% sure where the smoke generated from, but as I opened the hood that's where the source was from, so I looked for damage, and the only wire that was suspect was connected to the post that the starter battery cable was attached to, and it was green/black, with a (fusible link) blue wire coming off of that.. But the starter relay was very hot, so, another piece of the puzzle .. Still trying to research.

[Skip426]

Originally Posted by Jim290

Skip I uploaded 5 photos, but I don't see them

You have to be very careful, first to re-size the photos 640X640 seems to work the best for me and then, when you click up-load ... wait until the black box saying uploading , disappears , before you close out the , manage attachments box. If you close before they're finished , they just get lost in cyber space.

I had a thought that there might be fuse wire ( fusible link ) involved, I can't remember what year Ford went over to , slow burn maxi fuses.

Was the wire you spliced the fuse wire?

[Jim290]

Yes, I actually took my knife and carved a chunk off of it to get more wire, but stopped, because I didn't know what it was.. I have just never seen any wire like that, and after reading posts, I am know guessing that's a fusible link? A 1" black igloo looking piece of rubber?
Thanks

[Skip426]

Rubber like insulation that's easily melted away , 99% sure that's a fuse wire, the load rating is usually determined by the color. Internal metal melts quickly to protect the rest of the harness in case of a short.
I'm thinking you'll need a wiring schematic for your coach to determine every circuit that is protected by that wire.
As a temporary replacement , you can pick up a 20 amp , self re-setting 12v circuit breaker, and wire that from the battery to the circuit load, if the breaker trips constantly you still have a short; and you're back looking at the schematic.


Because this is an E-350 , any Ford garage should be able to photocopy you the wiring schematic, from their shop manuals.

[Jim290]

Thanks Skip, I appreciate all your help. I'll try that in the am.

[Jim290]

I had a few guys help this morning, and we (they) found and fixed the problem, which was the wire that goes straight to the fuel pump had melted in the containment harness . The cause was a short due to an exposed wire grounding out. The irony is that I just replaced the fuel pump and relay a month ago, so of all the wires to replace...
Anyway, back on track and will be leaving after a nap. I didn't get a lot of sleep last night.
Thanks Skip, and everyone else that helped out any way they could!
This site is awesome!
Be safe,
Jimmy