Funny, didn't think that would leak

[Bambikiller240]

Originally posted by blitzkraig

It happened again..................

Just curious though, where do you guys connect the ground cable for your battery?

To the "Upper" bolt that holds the Starter to the Bell Housing (the OEM location)

Where have you been mounting the Negative Cable from your battery? Somewhere else? If so, then I think you've found the cause of your Clutch hose frying. The starter uses a lot of power (AMPS) and if the Neg battery cable isn't there, the current would probably use the S/S hose as a path to where ever you had connected the Neg Batt cable in order to complete the circuit.

[SteveK]

Stainless steel has a considerably higher resistance than materials like --- like copper for instance, so when your starter kicks over and tries to draw several hundred amps (300 + on full load is not unusual) through a poor conducter that has a smaller CSA (cross sectional area) than the original conducter (proper engine earth strap) things get rather warm.

As usual Mr Bambikiller is spot on, the original earth point on the engine is the top bolt hole of the starter and one to the firewall next to the battery.

[blitzkraig]

Ok that makes more sense. When I originally took ownership of the car the negative cable was bolted to the firewall by the bolt that holds the battery "hold down" to the firewall. After the first hose fried I moved the cable to another spot on the firewall and made sure it made metal to metal contact but I guess the firewall wasn't enough. Anyway, the ground problem is now solved. Guess I'm just twiddling my thumbs until my clutch hose gets here from MSA. Thanks for all the help though guys!:classic:

[Bambikiller240]

Craig:

Your Negative Batt Cable, The Large cable should be connected as I mentioned at the Starter, but there should also be a small wire part of the cable that connects to the firewall, so the cable basically connects to BOTH places.

[2ManyZs]

Since the engine and transmission are pretty much isolated from the rest of the chassis with the rubber engine mounts, the starter was trying to find a ground through the only metal conductor between the engine and chassis...

[Walter Moore]

I hadn't considered it, but having a Stainless clutch hose could be a problem if you had a bad ground.

Stainless steel is an nickel-chromium-iron alloy, and is a very poor conductor indeed. Actually the "Ni-Chrome" wire in an electric heater is basically stainless steel, or something very close to it.

(For those of you who live in California or Florida an electric heater is something that you plug into the wall to stay warm when it is cold outside... Just thought that I should clarify that...)

[2ManyZs]

And, like water, electricity will always seek out the shortest path, with the least amount of resistance. Since the clutch hose is the closest point to what the starter is mounted......

One of the reasons everyone is always advising checking the grounds first when diagnosing an electrical problem.

[SteveK]

Consider this guys

What would have happened if that had been a stainless braided fuel line :dead: --- maybe it should be standard trading practice that when a company sells you braided fuel lines, they also supply a fire suppression system.