Serious grid heater question!
 

While starting my truck for the first time after fixing kdp, replacing timing cover gasket ,crank seal, valve cover gaskets, and intake manifold gaskets, when I turned my key to wait to start my grid heater contacts sparked so I shut off the truck and made sure everything was alright. After deciding that everything is installed properly and should be working fine I tried a second time with no problems but as soon as my truck started one of the grid heater wires that goes to the positive on my battery popped and now is no longer a wire. What could have gone wrong, how can I fix this, and is it possible to get the new cables from the battery down?

:humm Sounds l;ike you have a hot wire grounding out possibly somthing you did doing the intake gaskets :c:

A shorted heater (element shorted to intake directly after the connection to the stud) will cause it to do the same thing. If the wire looks good you might check the heater itself.

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Ya which is what I'm awfully confused about because everything is installed the way it was and everything looks good except a portion of this one wire to the battery that sparked and kinda just popped. Is there any chance it could be related to there being mouse piss on the wire? Lol

Ive seen folks not hold the bottom nut and turn the stud, shorting the heater.

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With that stud having a possibility of being loose would that wreck it? How do you hold the nut on the bottom of the stud to tighten it?

Its easy enough to check you grid heaters, just pull the covers off of it and check for resistance and you can also check the ampreage, should be close to 160 Amps, I dont think you can get the cables backwards?

yes there definitely not backwards, i'm thinking it could be the grid heater studs that are loose but I dont know a way to get a hold of the nuts on the bottom to tighten the studs? And how should I go about replacing these cables? And call me stupid but I can't seem to even get my grid heater off of my truck I have all the bolts removed and it wont budge...

You're intake heater may be one with entire plenum. If thats the case you'll have to remove it and hold the bottom of the terminal but there is a good chance that the heater has failed if the terminals are loose, their relatively inexpensive. I've seen them repaired with home fabricated studs but they commonly become boost leaks.

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I think thats a fuseable link, it's designed to burn out before the rest of the wire melts. :c:

Mopar1973Man's Dodge Cummins Articles - Grid Heater

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Hopfully this can help you out.

i found this online

"If you replace the two intake gastkets you can do away with the ground wire. The new gastkets are conductive while the old ones weren't. The heater grid is grounded to the housing."

Could that have something to do with it? also is the ground wire the one at the back of the grid heater that goes onto one of the manifold bolts? I read somewhere that that is a positive wire though.. Online research can sure be confusing sometimes..


Are these fusible linked wires from the battery to the solenoids replaceable??

The fuseable link are replaceable and what happened is you have it shorted out somehow, you just gotta figure where the positive is shorting to ground, fix that problem and replace the link wich you should be able to get at your local parts store. You do realize that your truck will start and run without the grid heaters hooked up right ? :c:

Yes I know, I had it running yesterday its just that I already have so much apart and just want it back to the way it was before I obviously did something wrong haha. Thank you for the input though and I will go on a hunt for these cables this morning..

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I guess my final question would be how do I remove the grid heater from the truck to replace the gasket underneath it and the gasket for the large intake plate underneath that? I see that only the manifold bolts hold the grid heater down as well but I can't figure out how it comes off...

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Well there goes try number 2 just burnt up another fuse link wire and still can't find a short anywhere the whole truck is the same as I took it apart....

It's gotta be the element, I've never messed with them but a shorted wire would be easy to spot. :c:

So I went into BD this afternoon and talked to a guy and he told me it could be the actual grid inside my grid heater that could be touching the outside walls and shorting it out. Hopefully that makes sense to you guys

Thats what I was trying to explain from the beginning.

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So I should just make sure the grid isn't touching and snug up those bolts and should be good?