Tore down a 300ex to frame. Frame was powder coated. Now all wiring is back on and starter engages and turns motor over but only for a brief second then solenoid starts clicking sound and one green wire that grounds to frame UNDER COIL gets hot and starts smoking. I ground the powder coating off where the wire grounds to frame so it would be bare metal. Was this a mistake? The wire getting hot has a copper terminal that grounds to frame. I also used dielectric grease on EVERY connection. Can you use too much of this?Need HELP!!!

 

IMO i would run an temp. jumpper, like take an gator clip wire run from neg.batt to engine ground and frame ground. you could take an auto jumpper cable[ like the black cable] one end to to engine ground and the other to frame ground and see if thats helps...Good Luck and keep us updated. and no IMO you cant use to mush dielectric grease.

 

Could a starter spin freely without being in contact with gears and still be bad? Could that cause the wire below the coil to get hot and the relay or solenoid to click?

 

Most of the times if starter spins it okay, if starter not enaging to engine you may have starter clutch not grabbing big gear, IMO i wouldnt causing the issue you got.Did you use the jumpper I mentioned?did starter work correct before the teardown?

 

Finally figured it out. Powder coating was insulating motor from grounding to frame. I should have known this earlier since I had to grind some off at back where neg. battery cable ground to frame. Oh well as I say...Can't fix stupid!!!

 

I forgot to thankyou for your replies papa hogg scoot. I did'nt try the grounding trick you mentioned as I thought about the powder coating stopping a good ground for battery cable before I tried it.