Probably overlooking the obvious but...battery cables heat up as soon as they are connected (no, not crossed). Replaced batt cables (4 ga), battery, solenoid, and added grounds (wall to block, block to frame, batt to frame, blower motor to wall). As soon as the battery cables hit the terminals they heat up instantly. Before i replaced everything, the brake lines would heat up and smoke, now just the terminals get hot. I know the starter could cause the cables to heat up while drawing but I can't even get the cables on. Maybe the solenoid on the RT fender is not grounded or wired wrong? Thanks in advance for any help. Always much appreciated!

Also, this is the same 1984 F150 300 6 cyl 4x4 that everyone helped me re-pin for a cluster swap from dummy lights to gauges.

 

Either the starter is trying to turn immediately, although it must not be able to turn or you would have mentioned that, or you have mis-wired something so that you have positive to ground at some point. Does the starter turn, or try to turn? Does the solenoid click?

I would check the wiring to see if maybe you have positive to ground. But, if that were the case I would expect serious sparks when you put the cable on the battery. Does that happen?

 

i would suggest starting your troubleshooting at the starter solenoid. as you know, it serves as a distribution block (multiple wires connected on battery side). remove the nut on that stud, and pull off every wire except the one from the battery. then connect the battery cables. having done so, the battery cables will (should) remain cold, and not spark. now take a test light and connect it from that hot post to each wire individually. one of them will light your lamp quite brightly. its your problem. follow it down and see what you find. if its the wire that powers most of the factory small stuff in the truck, attack the fusebox in a similar way. you'll find it

 

Good idea. Reps for that.

 

Ok, took all wires off the solenoid except positive battery cable and starter cable. Hooked up batter cables and they started getting really hot still. Multimeter measured battery at 12.0 unhooked, and dumped to .5 when hooked up. I did run a jumper cable from the starter bolt to the frame (for better ground) and it seamed to let the battery cables cool. Also, the starter cable at the solenoid, and the positive battery cable both measured at 12.0 when the negative battery cable is disconnected. I tried swapping in a new solenoid, no difference (thinking it welded itself shut). But the components are narrowed down to battery (new), solenoid (new), battery cables (new), starter (older), and starter cable. Tried jumping the solenoid with the battery hooked up and nothing happened, not even a click...but both solenoids were good. Reading my own text makes me think the starter draws immediately like Gary said, but how is that possible with the key switch off and no keys in the ignition? And the starter was fine before these issues. I'm lost guys, tired of hitching rides.

 

so far you proved that nothing in the factory small wires is your problem, thats a start. that leaves us to study your big wires. are you sure they all run to the right places? double check all of your extra grounds you added, disconnect them if you have the slightest doubt. then try again.
if that doesn't get it going, disconnect the wire from starter solenoid to starter. the solenoid shouldn't send any power there, but it wouldn't hurt to double check.
maybe try a continuity check between the battery terminal of the solenoid against the solenoid body. there shouldn't be continuity, but if there is, it might be causing your problem.

 

There are two points I'd like to address...

Did it work before you did your cluster swap?

There is a direct battery connection between the battery and the ammeter.

If it did work before the swap, look toward what you did earlier.

As I've said before on here, to do that job properly you need to swap the complete underdash harness, and swap out the alternator harness as the circuts are different between Dummy lights and gauges.

If you rewired anything wrong at the instrument cluster connector, or didn't add the correct shunts or resistor wires into the ammeter circuts, that could explain your problems.

I've seen ammeters burn up and catch fire in the dashes of improperly wired retrofits.

Why I will never recommend someone doing this without swapping the complete main harness and alternator harness. There are at least 10 different circut pathway differences between Dummy Lights and gauges alone. You can't just rewire the cluster connectors, as there are several circut path differences under the hood as well.

The only way it can do that is if the Starter solenoid on the fender is stuck in the closed position, or that you have one of your battery cables hooked up backwards at the starter.

The Solenoid and the starter would both have to be stuck to let a dead draw through the cables like that.

Double check the large wires at the battery and the starter solenoid then going to the starter. Check for a dead short to ground on one of the cables.

Also check for reversed polarity at the starter or at the battery.

Positive battery cable to starter solenoid, starter solenoid to small terminal on starter.

Negative battery cable to starter mounting bolt where it mounts to the engine. Half way along this cable there is supposed to be a frame grounding tang.

 

Are you sure you got the correct battery for your truck?
Batteries can have the (+) and (-) on either side depending on the battery model. Also the battery posts are different diameters but can be forced.

One time Sears sold me the wrong battery. When I got home with the battery and tried to install it, I found that the posts were reversed from what I had before. I had to go get a longer (+) battery cable to make it work.

 

I had a similar thought myself. Reversed polarity at the battery or at the starter.

 

I have the positive cable hooked to the positive terminal on the battery, and to the solenoid. I do not have the battery reversed. Also connected on that solenoid post is the fuse panel power cable. Ignition wire boot is on the small terminal closest to the battery. Today i installed another new solenoid, new starter, new starter cable (4 ga), and grounded the starter to the frame with a 4 ga cable. The battery wires remained cool and there wasn't a huge spark when I hooked the cables up. Unfortunately when I tried to crank it, the new solenoid must have welded closed again and the starter kept cranking. Popped the battery cable off to stop it, closed the hood, and stepped away. I did put the multimeter on the solenoid with the starter cable off, and yes...registers on all posts without key on. The truck ran fine for a while after the cluster swap. Sat for a few months and now I this issue started.

 

It sounds like you have the problem solved with one problem - either the solenoid was bad, and there have been lots of reports of them being bad out of the box, or the starter is pulling too much current. But, you said it was a new starter and I've not heard of them being bad out of the box, so I'm betting on the solenoid. Go get a Motorcraft one, even if it is from the salvage, and try again. You may have it whipped.

 

X2 on a motorcraft solenoid. Also make sure where the starter solenoid bolts up to the fender is clean and tight. This is how the solenoid grounds. (through the mount to the fender)

 

I couldn't find a motorcraft solenoid, so I went with a blue streak (made in china but felt better quality than the other...but still made in china). Grinded down the inner fender so nothing but a clean virgin patch of metal showed to bolt the solenoid to. Put the 4ga cable from the starter bolt to the frame, and it fired right up. The added starter ground definitely helped keep the battery cables cool, but cleaning the solenoid ground seemed to be the real difference when cranking. So far, none of the wiring is showing issues from the cluster swap. I will keep you posted if it acts up again, because it didn't have these corrosion/ground issues before the swap. Thanks for all your help fellas!

 

Congrats!

 

Yes, glad you got it working...