Hey guys, here's a head scratcher for you. A friend of mine bought a car and I was trying to help him get it running today.. He heard it run before he bought it, but it's been sitting for a year since. We put a brand new battery in it, it turned over very slow then clicked like battery was dead.. Put a known good battery out of his driver in it, same result.. We figured maybe starter was bad from sitting, replaced it.. It turned over a little faster but quickly drew the battery down.. I ran a jumper cable straight from the battery to the starter terminals still same result. Also the car has B&M shifter, it was resting against the bellhousing.. It got hot and started to melt the insulation on it, we traced the whole cable from the shifter to the transmission lever, it touches no wiring anywhere.. I've never seen such a thing.. Any ideas?

Sounds like a bad ground.The engine is trying to ground itself thru the shifter cable,thats why its melted.

That's what I was wondering too, it's got a ground on the head, maybe the cable is bad. Thanks

A ground on the head is useless, as to properly ground out it must go through isolated rubber motor mounts..
Put a direct ground strap between the block and back to the firewall or frame.
Now try it...


Just my $0.02...

The head is bolted straight to the block?

This/\

I did a trans for a guy with a Vette. Worked fine until he got it out of winter storage. Car was sluggish turning over and when it did start it had no gears. Pulled it apart and the seals had melted. It was trying to ground through the trans. Cleaned up the chassis grounds and it was good to go.

Yeah but...
The head and block float above ground..
They are isolated from being a solid, reliable ground as the 12V must try and flow through rubber insulated motor mounts to the car frame. A DIRECT grounding strap from the engine to the frame and/or firewall assures a solid ground connection.
Keep in mind, the starter draws > 100amps and without a solid ground for the 12V- other problems can/will happen..

Just my $0.02....

Yes check for that good ground from batt term to solid part of engine, manifold, head, block, whatever. The GM cars use to get corroded neg batt ends and ground thru shifter cable like mentioned above.

Well it's grounded from the negative terminal straight to the cylinder head with 4 gauge battery cable. Maybe I'm wrong but why would it still have to be grounded to the frame? Im thinking it may be corroded where it is bolted on the head or the cable is broken inside the sheathing.

There always needs to be a ground from batt to body, but the larger gauge wire always goes to engine from the batt to carry the great current to the starter to crank the thing.

Several reasons..
1. When the car was built it had at least 2 wire links grounding the engine to the frame
2. When the starter is activated a significant current pull (>100 amps) is made from the battery so if there are missing and/or poor grounds the voltage will travel in strange ways
3. A unitized ground system is required for a proper running ignition/electronic plus minimizing electrical noise interference
4. Even more important in todays sophisticated computer car systems

Many users fail to understand how to wire/maintain a reliable electrical system, as long as it works its OK...

Just my $0.02...

Using a meter check engine, chassis, body, starter housing, etc. to battery negative for differing resistance levels. Might too even do so with a helper while cranking engine.

Funny every early Mopar Ive had since the 60s had the batt ground to the motor.The small ground on the back to firewall is to ground for the body not the starter.Sounds like either bad cables,bad starter,or motor locking up.The starter and ground are all grounded thru the block.I had a GM once new motor.Tried to start and smoke came up.Seems my buddy had the small ground wire attached but the large one that bolted to the alt bracket wasnt.Attached it and all was goog.Just because cables look good they can be corroded inside.Rocky

Try using a set of jumper cables as temporary gounds.At one end put both to the neg term on the battery and the other end put one on the block and the other on the chassis and see if that fixes the problem

Don't know what your doing, do ya?

What are you grounding the engine and body to?

The battery

a ground cable from the head to the battery is perfectly acceptable for grounding the engine including the starter. After all the factory grounded million of car that way. The ground between the block and body to to ground the BODY to the engine.

Correct, you have a known good battery/starter so it has to be in the large cables. Clean each terminal/connection (power and ground paths) & you should be good. also once I had a cheap made overseas cable that had a layer of green corrosion inbetween the strands and the crimped end terminal, took a bit to figure that one out. Oil/grease inbetween the starter/thin plat/block could interrupt that flow but is rare cuz there is alot of metal surface contact area with the starter wide flange down there. iirc you jumped it straight to the battery & still bad so start with the ground paths. EDIT & was the neg jumper cable clamped to the starter case?

The starter draw can be in excess of 250 amps.

& starters are weird electric motors in that the slower they turn the more current they need/draw so a poor connection will slow it down which wants more current (which ain't available) which slows it down even more which draws even more current & this happens in a matter of a second or two till you hear the machine gun clatter of the pull in/hold in solenoid circuits activating back & forth.

The battery's negative terminal should have a solid, clean ground to the engine block, frame and body. If the Mopar is 50 years old, running a 35 amp alternator with stock accesories one may get by with less...
However...
Later cars and/or including Mopars which have been updated to include ECUs, electric fuel pumps, electric fans, subwoofer system REQUIRE a solid high integrity ground system is pertinent for reliable operation.

Regarding the question.. "Don't know what your doing, do ya?"
I would respond to this by saying.. "Yes we do..."

Here is short summary of my background..

* 35 years of experience of designing auto electrical systems
* 40% of the later cars built since 1995 utilize our designed electrical
systems/components
* Designer/builder of multiple high-profile demo cars for CES & SEMA
* Written multiple major publication articles on electrical systems/wiring
* Holder of multiple patents

If U require more info/knowledge on how to wire auto electrical systems and the importance of proper grounding..
PM me and I will forward more details on the subject.

Just my $0.02..

Ok here's what the issue was guys, the large ground wire that went from the battery terminal to the head was broken inside the insulation on the battery terminal side. We replaced the cable and she turned right over. Thanks for the replies