Greetings,

My Evo 9 has been down since October last year. Life got in the way for a while and the weather is finally cooperating to where I can work on it again.

When it broke down, it wouldn't start and I saw and smelt smoke with a burning electrical smell underneath the hood. The ground wire for my CAS got cooked and the ground going from intake manifold to firewall was pretty corroded and worthless.

I finally tore the wiring harness apart recently and it looks like only the CAS ground wire got damaged. Found a couple other old threads with related issues so using those as reference to fix the ground issue there.

Upon further inspection I did find a loose ground on the bellhousing. I wiggled the wire and the ground terminal is loose between the bolt and bellhousing. Now this is where I am nervous.. I tried tightening that bolt and it feels like it won't go any further and like it will snap if I keep trying. It also doesn't feel quite right if I start to loosen it. I'm afraid I'm somehow messing the threads up. I had the transfer case swapped by a shop 2 years ago when it broke down so wondering if that bolt just starting backing out on it's own over time and eventually lost ground?

Am I overthinking things? I feel like a total scrub and noob right now but I haven't touched the car until recently since last year. Considering just towing it to a shop but I feel like this is an easy fix but I don't want to snap a bolt in the bellhousing or anything and be completely screwed. Car ran fine for 2 years and about 5k miles after I had the t-case swapped.

Any help or reassurance is appreciated lol.

 

Squirt is some deep creep or whatever penetrating lube you like and let it soak in for some days and then go wiggling again?

 

you can just add more ground cables instead of messing with the old bolts just make them look neat

 

The other thing to check is make sure the ground strap on the back of the intake manifold and the firewall is still connected that ground being missing can cause this type of failure.

 

I agree ...add more ground straps ...at least 3 or 4.. I used to use battery cable thick ones... One each from the shock towers to the block, another one from the intake manifold to the firewall and one from the tranny to frame on drivers side. Clean all pAInt off first, then install and cover the open areas with conductive paint. You will notice a difference in teh lights etc and the way the car runs.

While you are at it, remove and clean all the other grounds , then bolt back up, anything with corrosion, replace it.

 

Have you done it, how it went?