Arb compressor wiring harness melted.

970Jeeper

New member
Just like the title says. I installed an arb twin compressor. Hooked it all up. Turned it on and the wires started smoking. It looks like the smaller ground wire melted everything from the contention to the inline fuse. My question is once I get a new harness. How can I wire it differently to not burn out the wires? When I hooked everything up. I hooked the ground wires to the body and not the battery. Could this be the problem? Any help from you all is much appreciated!
 

GP NOIR

Hooked
At a minimum I would ground to the frane, not the tub.
The factory grounds the electrical system to the body and engine block. I don’t know if they specifically ground the frame to the body.

The two problems with grounding to the frame are-
-The ground wire will need to be longer than necessary
-There’s no guarantee the factory grounded the frame to the body. There will likely be continuity between frame and body, but might have more resistance than desired.

Just like the title says. I installed an arb twin compressor. Hooked it all up. Turned it on and the wires started smoking. It looks like the smaller ground wire melted everything from the contention to the inline fuse. My question is once I get a new harness. How can I wire it differently to not burn out the wires? When I hooked everything up. I hooked the ground wires to the body and not the battery. Could this be the problem? Any help from you all is much appreciated!
Connecting the ground to the body instead of the battery (or vice versa) won’t cause the wires to melt. What causes wires to melt is running too much amperage through them.

It sounds like a positive wire was connected to a ground, or a ground wire was connected to a positive terminal, or there was a short in the circuit.

NOTE: Make sure all your ground connections are clean. Many electrical problems can be eliminated by simply taking the time to ensure grounding points are clean.
 
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WJCO

Meme King
Just like the title says. I installed an arb twin compressor. Hooked it all up. Turned it on and the wires started smoking. It looks like the smaller ground wire melted everything from the contention to the inline fuse. My question is once I get a new harness. How can I wire it differently to not burn out the wires? When I hooked everything up. I hooked the ground wires to the body and not the battery. Could this be the problem? Any help from you all is much appreciated!
Sounds like a hot wire is touching ground somewhere. Regardless, a fuse should have blown I would think. Post a picture of the ground wire.



Here's how I did mine. The large cables I ran from the battery to the back of the Jeep. So large red is hot and large black is ground.

First picture is just rough wiring and circuit was turned off:

DSC03681.JPG

ARB wires now hooked to power and ground:

DSC03694.JPG

Hot wires. This nut and bolt is strictly through plastic and doesn't touch anything metal on the Jeep:

DSC03696.JPG
 
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970Jeeper

New member
Alright so with the help of everyone that chimed in it think I found out what could have caused this. What GP Nior stood out to me. I am connecting this to a Vos Switch and in making the connection to the box. I put the ground wire to the purple wire. If I understand you guys right this is where I went wrong. Can someone confirm.
 

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WJCO

Meme King
Alright so with the help of everyone that chimed in it think I found out what could have caused this. What GP Nior stood out to me. I am connecting this to a Vos Switch and in making the connection to the box. I put the ground wire to the purple wire. If I understand you guys right this is where I went wrong. Can someone confirm.
If the purple wire is a switch wire, there should be no ground there.
 
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970Jeeper

New member
Well that’s where it all went wrong then. Well you gotta learn something every time you work or do something and boy did I. I will tell you what though. Arb worked with me. They got me me new harnesses on the way under warranty. I flat out told them it was my bad. From my experience great costumer service. Thanks to all that helped me out here. Glad be in this community!
 
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