95 Chevy 1500..350/5.7(Fire!! Fire!!!)

Here's what happened. I got up this morning to go pick my son. Go inside to get him and get back in truck and it wouldn't start. Five minutes hadn't even passed. So my first instint was maybe the battery is a little weak so i jumped it off. No such luck. So i said to hell with it went ahead to my sons baseball game with his mother. After the game, tried to start it again no such luck. All of a sudden i hear this sound like someone's drilling on the roof. Didn't think nothing off it until i saw smoke coming from under the hood. Immediately i popped the hood and saw wires on fire!! I quickly disconnected the battery and the sound stopped. I'm figuring that it was something with the starter since it was coming from that area. I called a tow to get the truck back to my home. I start troubleshooting the wires and trace them to a point where the thick wire from the starter side(and several other wires) and the thick wire from the ignition side(and several othe wires) meet together. The wires were corroded very bad at that point. Before i discovered this, I was thinking the starter was bad but now I'm not so sure. Would a bad ignition or starter cause this? or could the wires just need re-splicing?

Were there bare wires touching each other, you can see the issue we cannot. A shorted solenoid could cause this or grounded battery cable. Start from scratch and repair all the cables and wires. reconnect the battery and watch carefully what happens during the start event.

A "green" connection will cause high enough resistence to cause a meltdown. i would go ahead and fix this spot and then p[roceed wi9th caution when hooking back up the batt. But i would say that you found your problem.

I didn't see any bare wires but once i traced them, it seems like the where they connect went bad. I know for a fact that i tried to jump the car off and constantly turning the ignition on and off may have caused this reaction. I'm not sure but I will prepare this and proceed with caution. I just wonder what made the solenoid run constantly. Could it have been the constant turning on and off of the ignition?

Well i repaired the wiring and connected the cables back to the battery. With one turn of the switch, the solenoid turned on continuosly and i quickly disconnected the cables. didn't want another one of those episodes. So guess i'll have to replace the starter.

I replaced the starter and it still won't start. However, this particular starter has a 2-horsepower motor. I guess i didn't realize that power has to go to both posts. Is this the case? If so, can i bridge both posts and then hook the small wire to one posts? how? If not, i'll just take it back and get the single post.

Oops!!!! Wire connected to wrong post....LOL!!!

i've discovered that this whole ordeal was my fault. The positive cable needed cleaning and by me constantly turning the ignition on and off, that caused the solenoid to malfunction and thus wires catching on fire. so i guess i'm an idiot but i've learned a valuable lesson.

Well I'm back and confused. This past Saturday, My truck was driving just fine. Saturday night left home and noticed the battery indicator dropped down to 9volt area. I had the headlights and A/C on. i turned around and went back home to see what would happen if i cut the truck off. It wouldn't start back. I then made sure cables were clean and tight and snug. It wouldn't start. I then disconnected power wire from the fuse box underneath the hood to make sure it wasn't correded. Hooked it back up and it started. Truck started until today when i got off work, truck wouldn't start. When i turned the ignition, all i heard was a click..click..click sound. Waited for a while and tried it again and got the same results. I pushed truck home via another truck since job isn't far away. Thinking it was my alternator, i took it off and had it bench tested. it passed all three tests(rectifier, regulator and something else). so now i'm really confused. could it be the switch? Switch module? I'm really at a loss for words right now. The starter is new and I don't have any idea where to start. I noticed when it was running fine, the battery meter would move towards 9volt whenever i cut the headlights on, A/C or both. As a matter fact, it would move more towards the 9volt area when both are on.