1982 Freightliner COE...

You burnt a wire off or something, on the way home when you smelled electrical smoke.

 

If you really burnt a wire, you are actually experiencing a fire. I actually had a CB set of wires go up when they caught fire off the old hot posts on the pax side of dash. That was interesting. 80 mph on the cross bronx on fire and getting bigger...

 

Did it spin over this time? Do you have room for a 4th batt in that box? Those short cables are cheap to buy and wear out after a many years buy all of them new After you ck for 12V at starter, If you must but a new starter but the new stile reduction starter they last much longer than the old type and the truck will sound like a dodge when it fires up?

 

NO Spin?

Bad starter or bad starter selenoid. Can it be that basic of a problem?

 

Did you cross the sol. on starter to big hot term. on starter to see if it will spin that way?

 

go thru your wiring first. its basically free. look for burnt connections and fried insulation.

wiring does not easily burn. the insulation is designed to resist fire. the stuff next ti it may catch fire of course,but yes,you can smell melting wiring without having a fire.

start digging around,pull the dash panels,jack the cab up,spend some time looking. i bet you find it and get it working for nothing.