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I have a 2005 Dodge Neon SXT. While working on something else, I did a stupid while I was trying to beat the dark and dropping temperatures and hooked the battery back up BACKWARDS–resulting in a lot of smoke billowing from the general neighborhood of my starter. Dashboard and dome lights still come on so, I don’t think I fried my entire electric system. I went out this morning to take another look in daylight, and found the wire that was smoking. It appears to be the ground wire attached to my starter, all the other wires look fine (though, I may take a crack at replacing my battery terminial cables when the weather gets warmer). It also appears that the piece of wire that got fried was spliced onto another wire (which appears to be a heavier gauge) that is bundled in with a bunch of other wires.
My question being, would it do me any good to try to splice on a new bit of wire to replace the damaged wire that attaches to my starter? The wire to which the damaged piece seems to be okay. Basically looking for a mid-term solution to get me thorough winter–If I have to replace that entire length of wire, I’d rather wait until the temperatures rise above freezing, yanno?
Thank you so much!
Pandorrah
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If you can cut the wire back to a good piece then splice the wire in for now.
If no good wire is left then you either need to replace the wire or you may be
able to run a separate ground to the starter.Thanks! I’ve been told that what I need is a fusible link. The wire that the link is attached to looks fine past the original splice.
Okay, now I feel kind of stuck.
Got a fusible link but, the wire to which I need to splice it is thicker than the fusible link. Looking at the old link, it looks like the factory just kind of stripped the insulation off of both ends of the wires, meshed them together and covered it with some heat shrink tubing. The “electrician’s kid” in me pretty much cringed when I saw that but, thinking I really had nothing to lose at this point, I’d give it a try. The splice didn’t even come close to passing the “tug test”.
Is there a better way to do that? Again, the “electrician’s kid” in me is telling me to find some disconnect links in the size appropriate for the larger gauge wire but, I can’t seem to find any in that size (the fusible link is 14 gauge, i’m guessing the wire it connects to is about an 8 or a 10).
Thanks for all your help!
Thanks! After my first failed attempt, I played around with the old link and the (turned out to be) 6 gauge it was attached to.
1. I think I probably didn’t let the first attempt cool all the way before tugging on it.
2. I had some success with using the heat shrink that fit the 6 gauge first, then over-lapped using heat shrink that more closely fit the 14 gauge to kind of seal up around where the larger heat shrink didn’t quite seal around the 14 gauge. Once it all cooled and set, it felt pretty solid.
Apologies for rambling…I’m pretty tired
[quote=”Pandorrah” post=180944]Thanks! After my first failed attempt, I played around with the old link and the (turned out to be) 6 gauge it was attached to.
1. I think I probably didn’t let the first attempt cool all the way before tugging on it.
2. I had some success with using the heat shrink that fit the 6 gauge first, then over-lapped using heat shrink that more closely fit the 14 gauge to kind of seal up around where the larger heat shrink didn’t quite seal around the 14 gauge. Once it all cooled and set, it felt pretty solid.
Apologies for rambling…I’m pretty tired[/quote]
🙂
So, it appears I got bigger problems…
Got the fusible link spliced on and re-connected to my starter solenoid. Still no start. I noticed that there is another wire (bundled into the same mess o’ wires) that connects to it via a plug that also looks like it might not be in good shape (wire looks okay, it’s the plug that looks a little fried). The pin that it connects to looks like it’s bent out of shape too (you know, kind of like a piece of metal that got hit with a bit too much electricity…go figure…). If I’m understanding what I’ve been reading correctly, is that the wire that runs to my starter switch? Thinking about replacing the whole starter.
What started this whole nightmare…was that my shifter has been sticky in cold weather for a while but, I’d been procrastinating about doing anything about it. It finally snapped (well, the plastic piece that holds it in the bracket broke…) the other morning. So, I picked up a replacement shifter cable and got it installed but, my gear shift won’t move all the way down to 1st gear, even though I have the cable adjusted for maximum slack. It feels like the new cable is getting stuck inside the rubber insulation somehow (if that makes any sense). Any pointers would be appreciated.
[quote=”Pandorrah” post=180959]Automatic.[/quote]
see if this helps with adjustment.
http://www.justanswer.com/dodge/4zy9b-dodge-neon-type-question-herehow-adjust-automatic.html
Hmm…that didn’t quite match. What I might try to do next weekend (Happy Christmas!), is unbolt it where it’s bolted into the floorboard and see if that gives me any more wiggle room.
Hoookay….
After scouring the interwebs to get smart about the starter…I’ve come to the conclusion that I may have fried my starter solenoid. Not only did the fusible link completely explode (which I’ve replaced), I noticed that there was another wire (looks like the insulation plastic might have been grey?) that attached to the solenoid with a plastic plug–if I’m reading the internet right, this connects the starter solenoid to the starter relay(?). As I mentioned previously, it appears that the plug attached to the wire has melted and fused to the pin it connects to on the solenoid.
So, right now, I feel like I’m having a vocabulary problem in narrowing down what parts I should be looking for. Starter…I got that. Throwing in a starter relay just in case…it’s that wire I’m stuck on. Don’t know what to call it. I’ve attached a picture of what I’m looking at and noted which part on the solenoid looks damaged, as well as what looks like a replacement wire and plug kit that might work.
Oh, and with the shifter cable…after RTFM…I found out that I should have waited to hook the cable up to the gearshift until I had the front end of the car back on the ground…but that’s not going to happen until I get this thing with my starter sorted out.
Thanks again for all your help! You have been awesome!
is this what your plug looks like? The other part that is damaged at the starter is
a male lug for a female push on like on the wires in the picture.On closer inspection, no…not really 🙁
Again…on my internet searching quest, I think I found the right part number (image attached), and it’s under $20 so…thinking about taking a gamble and ordering it.
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