In car audio we do what we call the "Big 3" upgrade to improve voltage. It is improving the wire form the alternator to positive battery terminal, the negative to chassis ground and the block to frame ground. I use 0 ga. copper power wire. I have see people use 0 ga. welding lead wire as well. Regardless of what is there, this is a good idea.

 

Mike,
I'm struggling with what appears to be a ground issue.
New starter on old truck. I see you ran a ground wire straight from the starter bolt connection to the frame.
Would that help if the starter housing to bellhousing grounding was subpar?

Thanks

 

In your situation I don't think that will help. I ran that ground to make sure the frame had a good ground so items like the tail, parking and marker lights would have a good ground. In a sense, I'm grounding the frame to the starter, not the other way around.
Your main ground cable from the battery should be grounded to the engine block. That should be a more than sufficient ground with the starter bolted solid to the bellhousing.
If you suspect a bad ground, first, be sure the battery cables are good. You really can't tell with a 100% certainty by looking at them. As cheap as they are, I would replace the cables. Be sure all connections are clean and tight. Use dielectric grease on all connections too. This may sound odd, but be sure the bellhousing bolts are tight to the engine, same goes for the starter to bellhousing bolts.
And be sure to ground the battery to the engine block. If you try grounding to sheetmetal (Splash pan, fender, radiator support) I can pretty much guarantee you'll have starter/grounding issues.
Good luck.

 

I have the battery grounded to the frame just under the block.
Alternator is grounded to a bolt on the block itself.
Ground strap from the the top of the motor just behind the carb to the firewall.
I ran some voltage checks while cranking, they check ok as far as I can tell.

Here's the overall issue, after driving the truck for a good 20 minutes, everything is good. If I cut it off, it will not immediately re-crank. No turnover, nothing. And I saw smoke coming from the throttle linkage behind the carb. White smoke like metal getting electrocuted smoke. To me it appears something is grounding out.

Give it about 10 minutes or so and it might struggle to turn over and crank...sometimes

Any overall help would be much appreciated.

 

First, move the ground to the block. The engine is insulated from the frame to a degree. An alternative, ground it directly to the starter.
Second, do you have headers? Could be heat soak, a common problem with headers. If you do have headers, you can get an insulating wrap to go around the starter. Summit and Jeg's both have it.
Also, an amperage draw test would tell you more than a voltage drop test.

 

I've been giving this some more thought.
As long as it is ok to run the ground wire from alternator and the negative battery vable both to the block then that might be the answer.

See if this makes sense and may describe my problem. And also the solution.

Recently I have been having trouble with interior lights being dim and I completely lost the AM radio ability to get a signal. I was down to static on the radio.
So i replaced a very old and beat up ground strap with new.

Radio works and interior light is better.

I also recently replaced the starter. Let's assume that the interface between the starter and bellhousing is clean.

The way it's currently grounded and configured, electricity flows from battery to starter solenoid to starter to bellhousing/motor. the following might be an issue. How does it return back from the motor when I currently have the battery grounded to the frame and the frame is in theory cushioned from the motor.

I also recently replaced the z bracket for the the clutch linkage and installed new thick felt washers as the old ones were in rough shape. Is it possible that before replacing the z bracket (aka, clutch bar assembly) that the current was flowing thru that member to get back to the frame and back to the battery?

If not, then under my current config how does the current get from the engine block to the frame so it can return to the negative terminal on battery.

Hence, your suggestion to relocate the negative battery terminal ground straight to the block and not the frame would be appropriate. Agreed?

 

Improper or missing ground straps will cause the trouble you describe, the starter draws a couple hundred amps or more initially. If the current can't flow through something it should, it will flow through something it shouldn't - fuel lines, carburetor linkage, brake lines, bearings, gears etc. Can cause serious damage.

 

Double posting here. Just saw your latest comment. No on the headers.
But I will move that negative cable to the block, same spot as the alternator.

thanks as always for the help, I will follow up when I get the change made.

 

Update. I took Mike's advice and moved the ground from battery to engine block. That helped the grounding issue.
Starting is strong now, no shorting out apparent.

I am concerned that it may have done other damage. I have a minor skip when driving. Not huge. I have some routine tune up stuff to do. This is a good time. I'm a little concerned about the distributor. I will inspect soon.

But just fyi, I had the battery wired into the frame for over six years, It's when I changed the z-bracket when these severe grounding issues started.

Once again, thanks for the help, it was very useful

 

Thanks for the update, sounds like you got it figured out.
Sounds like your Z-bar was being used as the ground path.