fire

[thesnowman]

while idling along last night, the two ground wires on the outside of the engine, one on the shaft near the water line, the other up near the cowling, got hot as firecrackers and started smoking and glowing red hot. it seems like electricity from somewhere was rolling through those wires. all components on the 30 hp nissan 4-stroke still functioned properly, but obviously a fire is a big problem. it appears the only damage done was a melting of the insulation around the wires. any ideas where the current was coming from or what the cause might be?

 

[rowbards]

Re: fire

I am not a nissan man but I have seen this on eletric start engines before. If this is an electric start engine I would first check where the harness enters the motor I have seen this wear at the bottom side causing the positive to ground to the engine just enough to cause this prob.<br /><br />Hope this helps

 

[TOHATSU GURU]

Re: fire

It's a dead short. Somewhere on the motor's electrical system you have a + and - wire touching.