truck has been sitting for 5 years

Sep 05, 2005 4 Replies

I just rescued a 78 chevy blazer from the great outdoors.The truck body is in great shape. The hood was not attached...so the motor got the best from mother nature for five years .Ok..I checked the fluids...good sign - no water entered. The alternator pulley rotated fine after a squirt of penetrating fluid. After replacing some new belts, a starter, and a brand spanking new battery.... I attempted to crank the silenced engine. It turned over, but it did not start.After a few more attempts, the battery seemed to of died. My friend motioned me to check out a smoking ground wire that was attached to the negative battery cable. I felt the wire and it was quite hot to touch. I am good with the mechanical part, its the electrical part that I can't seem to put in a bucket...Can anyone help me solve this electrical problem and the know how to fix.



Clean cable connections on starter also. Suggest that you pull the plugs, turn it over without compression to loosen it up, install good used or new plugs. Replace plug wires, they're shot after 5 years in the sun, also maybe battery cables. Drain old gas, if any, and put in new gas. It won't run on gas that old.

78blaz>I just rescued a 78 chevy blazer from the great outdoors.The truck body is

putting some marvel mystery oil in the cylinders when you pull the plugs ands then cranking things over wouldn't be a bad idea either.

Suggest you REPLACE the power and ground wires to the battery and starter, then follow as above from Mr Ball.

The hot cable is probably from the fuse wire which is built into the cable. Its a last chance fuse to protect from big shorts like when I grounded the hot terminal on the battery with the wrench on a camaro. If you got off it fast enough it may have not blown.

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