have a very well kept 87 dakota that was cranking slow. Then it started not cranking and I would have to get a jump and it would start right up. Engine runs and sounds great. Just slow starting so i replaced the starter(whata pain) then I start it up and I see smoke. One of the connector plugs was partly melted were it plugs into the firwall and says "heater". Pulled the plug off and started it again and it starts but saw smoke again. Killed it and closer inspection reveal I roasted a wire in the harness. Was a black one . Melted almost all the insulation. Was just this one wire.

Dont know what I could have done just swaping the starter out and now I have a melted wire. Any ideas?

thanks for reading

 

Bad ground? Black wire tells me that. If a main ground is not grounding as it should, it will try to use an auxiliary ground, no matter the gauge and will fry it. Lit up an aux ground on my dads trans am that way. Full starter power running through a 10 gauge wire.

 

i won't go head and say marcar is wrong, but just because a wire is black, does NOT mean it is a ground. you need to get yourself some wiring diagrams if you don't know what your playing with.

 

Got a manual just hadnt had time to trace it down yet. It was a sad moment though as you can imagine. Just replaced the starter for the first time thinking the slow cranking had something to do with it . For anyone who has replaced a starter that top bolt is a **** to get too and I was ready for some victory but all smoke and no show. Sad thing is the truck is like a time capsule looks amazing. I had a beater of the same year that looked like it had been to hell and back and not one hickup. Guess thats how it goes...

 

I know that black is not always a ground, just going with what I can from behind my computer screen and its a place to start looking.

 

It sounds to me more like a short than a bad ground, the wiring in older Dakotas can suffer from cracked, and generally poor insulation. I rewired my 93 from the firewall forward after finding a number of wires with insulation cracking and falling from the conductor. That was 3 years ago, haven't had a single issue since.