1) get a good charge on the battery
2) try to crank.
3) if the wires melt again, the starter is fried, or the engine bound and
making the starter work too hard.
4) hope its a starter and not a motor issue.
Personally I've not heard of many (if any) starter issues amongst the Gen
III guys.
TonyC
-----Original Message-----
From: Stephen Cecil <scecil@npc.net>
To: Dakota List <dakota-truck@dakota-truck.net>
Date: Tuesday, July 20, 2004 7:45 AM
Subject: DML: Dead Dak - Help please!
>
>Yesterday while driving home, about 100 yards from my house, my Dak (2K
4.7L
>Auto) stopped running all of a sudden. When I tried to re-start it, it
would
>barely turn over. I have a 6-month old Optima battery. Thinking the
battery
>was low, I got my wife's car and tried to jump it. It only cranked a
little
>better, and the insulation on the engine ground strap started to melt!
>
>I thought it might be heat soak in the starter(my '69 Camaro w/headers used
to
>do that all the time), but that's never happened to the Dak before. I got
it
>towed to the house and tried to start it this morning. It will crank
slowly at
>first and then faster as it goes, but as soon as it seems to catch, the
engine
>dies. Also, the ground strap insulation melting thing is still there. No
>clanking or unusual mechanical sounds. It hasn't lit up the check engine
light.
> I have checked the voltage of the battery (~12.3V resting).
>
>The last time I had something like this happen (in a Impala), the timing
gears
>were stripped. Luckily I have a motorcycle to ride to work on, but I would
like
>to see if I can fix this without going to the dealer. I have the FSM but
>haven't had the time to run through it yet. Any ideas or suggestions?
>
>I'm in digest mode, but I'll be checking the WWW gateway throughout the
day.
>
>Thanks!
>
>Steve
>00 CC Sport+ 4.7L Auto 3.55 LSD
>
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