85 se 4 cyl

installed new battery & hot wire to starter.
negative wire was too short to go back in original position so i moved it to a engine bolt that also has the little flat copper wire running to the decklid.
now.....the car is very sluggish, check engine light comes on & will barely run.
also , little negative wire that runs to the body get HOT.

is it possible that the battery cannot be grounded to the engine & the body at the same place ??
oh yeah , forgot to say ...battery drains itself , charge it to full & within a hour , NO charge whatsoever.
alternater belt is tight & ok .
only thing i changed was the battery, the hot wire to starter & the position of the ground wire .
thanks for any and all help .
moonie

I don't know if this will help, but I had a Huyndai a few years ago that would discharge the battery overnight. It turned out to be the alternator. If I disconnected the alternatorwire from the battery, it wouldn't discharge.

As for the wire from the negative battery terminal to the engine, I think it would be worth a few bucks to just get a new one that's long enough to connect to the correct location on the engine.

Yeah, a faulty ground will cause all kindsa goofy problems. Gauges will fluctuate, lights come on and go off, it's like a thing possesed.
That little braided wire isn't really a ground, it serves as a sort of inductance shield. I'm not sure about thexact purpose, but I'm sure it has something to do with the ignition system, and shielding r/f signals emitted by it. If it's getting hot, then it's trying to act as the jumper to ground, and it's not heavy enough for that.
Replace the ground to body, and you should be OK. The battery drain could be any number of things, the alternator may be a good suspect, but I'd replace the ground first.

Good luck!

-Taiji

good idea on the alternater.
i jumped my car to crank it. took off neg wire & car died.
on my way to auto zone for alt & neg wire .

thanks

well , i reckon i'm a big dork .
turns out , you have to take off the HOT side on battery .
oh well , learn from mistakes huh ?

[This message has been edited by moonie (edited 07-14-2000).]