I have a 1990 Jeep Cherokee Pioneer and I am the original owner. Unfortunately I have left some of the repair jobs in the hands of others and I am left with "burning wire syndrome"!
A rebuilt alternator failed on my son while he was driving it three years ago. He says it started smoking burning wire smoke but he was in front of an auto repair shop and they fixed him up to get home.
One of the things I noticed when it got back was that the main negative battery cable is running from the battery to the starter solenoid. I think it used to go to the engine block but I can't see where unless it is to one of the bolts that mounts the AC compressor to the block.
The ground strap from the firewall to the engine was fried and I fixed that.
Also, the black wire and the black/white wire of pins B and C of the NSS connector fried and in the process melted other wires.
Two weeks ago the smokey wire thing happened again (after I had done low level engineering repairs two years ago)

(I was trying to make this short.......bear with me!)

I am in the middle of tracing bad wires to replace and following Cruiser54's tips for ground refreshing and connector fixing, but, for now I was wondering where cables from the battery should go as far as the solenoid is concerned.
Also, I've heard some people say that their battery negative cable has always been connected to the ground point at the oil dipstick.

Thanks for your time.

 

The negative cable could go to the dipstick tube stud or be attached a bit forward from there on the block.

 

Thanks. I think I'll run another cable to the block and leave the one now going to the solenoid.

 

Can you post a photo?

 

Is there a ground from battery to passenger fender ?

 

I'm having trouble visualizing a ground on the solenoid.....

 

In 27 years there was never a ground wire to the fender but I am attaching one today. I have a bad picture, but the situation is that the only cable on the negative battery post is going down to the starter or solenoid. I think it used to go to the engine block. When I get under there and get some stuff out of the way I'll try to get a good picture.

 

The big negative battery cable goes to a mounting bolt for the starter. I couldn't tell for sure until I crawled under there. Wiring looks OK but I'm going to disconnect them all and clean the connections. Especially ground. The solenoid is a little loose. Is that a problem? It wiggles about 1/4 inch when I jiggle it.

As an aside or possibly I need to start another thread, I'm paranoid about all the wiring these days due to multiple instances of wires burning in the past 3 years. The wires that are usually the first to show smoke are from the NSS (Black and Black/White stripe)(It is my understanding that these two are only in contact in P or N and are involved in the starting circuit). I have a new NSS but I am not going to install it until I refresh grounds and replace bad wires and bypass the NSS for awhile until I'm sure the situation is back under control. I haven't even started on wires under the dash yet. I know there are more surprises under there. I had to replace an ECU two years ago because of problems from the NSS.

 

Ground cable went to bolt of oil dipstick tube with others from factory.

 

what are the connectors call that are connected to the wire that goes into the solenoid? The little rectangular ones? I’m thinking those might be bad on mine. How can I replace those or where can I get the entire wire with the new connection on it already?

 

You talking about these? The ones that slide on the the flat tab?
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Gardner-...155F/205846616

 

those are similar but I mean the exact same ones used to plug the wires into the solenoid. It would be nice to get new ones and replace the ones on my Jeep because they are all really brittle and old.

 

I'm not aware of any oem style ones. Most people just crimp those on if they need to replace the wire on the connectors.