Melted battery terminal , bad connection?

[Trev]

I was attempting to start my suburban and it was giving me some trouble. Hard cranking and then intermittent starter engagement . Kind of like the sound of a battery going dead. . After letting off the key it didn't seem like the starter stopped making noise. It was making a high-pitched whining noise . I'm not really sure if it was the starter or just the sound of the battery discharging. Popped hood and the battery was smoking . I walked away and let the situation work itself out. The smoked stopped and I walked back to find that the battery terminal had melted out and the cable was laying to the side.

The battery was brand-new but I had started it a few times before without issue. After reading up on this I believe I may have cranked down on the battery terminal too hard resulting in a cracked battery terminal or The washer had been smashed too thin resulting in an intermittent connectivity issue. Does anyone know if this could've caused this strange behavior I observed? It seems unlikely to me that that's the direct cause of the failure observed . what would your diagnostic procedure be before hooking up a new battery? (I am farmilur with a volt and ohm meter)

99 k1500 suburban

 

[ak diesel driver]

Sounds to me like your starter kept running or shorted out. I would verify it's working properly.

 

[Trev]

Pulled The starter and tested the ohms between the two terminals on top of the solenoid. There was no resistance there, so I guess there is my short to ground . Thank you for the advice .

 

[Will L.]

Every since I lost my starter, battery, and cables to the same thing- I added a battery shut off switch.

Yes btw, that much heat through the battery cable to melt the connection off the battery means the cable has been overheated and the cable will be crap. Not replacing it may cost you another starter.

 

[WarWagon]

One of the reasons I hate 6.5 starters... My first 6.2 starter job got a rebuilt 6.2 starter (direct drive) that had a wallowed out motor shaft. It would randomly hang up just like this till we pulled the battery cables.

They sound you were hearing was the starter spinning without turning the engine.

IMO this overheated the starter that may have been defective anyway. It needs to be replaced.

Some causes are: bad ignition switch, bad starter, short at the starter terminals. The short is where the little wire hits the big battery wire and self turns on at the starter.

@Will L. advice is good short of tools to disconnect the battery cables. I would 2nd the advice esp. as you don't 100% know the cause at this point. Note cables get hot so be careful of burns.

Do you have a fire extinguisher in your vehicle? Batteries can explode so I'd have run away from a smoking battery with the hood back down! Maybe even 911 and let the professionals put it out...

One last thought: diesels need RPM to start. Anything sounding like it's cranking slow needs immediate attention in the order of DON'T SHUT IT OFF TILL YOU ARE IN A PLACE YOU CAN REPAIR IT! It may not start the next time. Your judgement if it will even start, but, at 30 seconds give it up till it is fixed. This call I make every time one battery fails and it's warm enough out to start on one battery to make it to the parts store that swaps them out for free. Cables do work loose and get tested with the batteries.