The starter shouldn't have anything to do with the computer.

 

speaking of grounding straps, does anyone know what purpose the braided metal grounding strap serves that goes from the firewall on the passenger side and connects to the hood???
didnt think the starter had anything to do with my problems, but at this point, I dont want to overlook anything that might be a problem. hope its just a drained battery.
hukd

 

No problem there, probably just a dead battery.
You can use your volt meter and check the battery voltage with the charger off, if its less about 10.75 it probably wont crank. The battery should be around 12.5 or more fully charged.

 

my back-up battery seemed to have 12V left in it. however, when I arc'd the solenoid with the battery via screwdriver, the motor acted rough as if maybe it had too much compression and couldnt turn over. (previously, with one plug out, it turned over fine thus my reasoning for too much compression or something like it) More importantly, acfter a few seconds, i start getting smoke from under my distributor somewhere. whats this mean? and why wouldnt the rod being pushed in make it crank like it used to? (it would make it turn over after installing this engine...obviously not cranking then.) HELP!!!!! what have i torn up now?

 

Charge the battery and make all the proper connections to solenoid. Then try to fire it up. To much resistance and dead (or dying) battery will make the motor crank slower then normal.....

As far as the smoke wait till battery is charged to see what kind of mess you made. Though charge battery unhooked from car...... It maybe due to weak connections.

 

My first impression is the engine isn't grounded either, that would make the starter not crank very well, and the extra electrons would look for any way they could to get back to the battery, including other wires, cables, ....

I had lawn mower that smoked from the throttle cable when cranking. When I put the neg wire from the battery charger staight to the motor, cranked twice as fast and no smoking cables.

Try to find the wires that were smoking and make sure they aren't damaged, you may need to electrical tape them, if you can get to them. Was the smoke from inside the distributor or near the base?

Did you ever disconnect the Orange mystery wire that you grounded early on?

It sounds like the ground is somehow messed.

 

This is off the wall but, do you have a tilt column? If so try tilting it all the way down. As to the too much compression....I suspect that you were turning the dist trying to get it to fire before? If this is the case, it may be a sign that it is trying to fire but, the timing is wrong. (firing too early, trying to knock the piston back down). Don't know about the smoke, can you try and narrow it down?

 

Disconnect the battery and leave it on the charger.

Also try ohming from the engine block to the chassis, and the neg cable;
and from chasis near the enine to the neg cable.

 

"my gf wants to know how much you guys charge to come fix my truck... im about to lose my roof and food over this deal....u think Im kidding?!?!?!?!"


You can't afford me...I get paid by the hour. I hope you don't end up loosing anything over this.

Hey, where is Henderson from Dallas?

 

Once you've smoked wires once, it's a good idea not to hook the battery back up till you find out why. Depending on how much smoke there was, it could have just been the insulation getting hot (but not burning off) on some wiring. (which is not good) If it smoked for long, it could burn off the insulation leaving some wires bare, (which is very bad.) Either one is fixable if you can get to the wires.

Check those ground resistances,they should be 0, I bet they aren't though. Then Try to get a look at what was cooking.

--
You can always remind the g/f that by now you would be up to about 3500$ from a shop, and they would just replaced the wiring harness, the starter, and the fusebox, wether it needed or not, so you've saved a lot of money.

Your almost there, I'm sure of it.

 

no, i never undid the mystery orange wire. its still grounded to the FPReg. mount.
the mystery smoke is coming from the base of the dist. or the mating surfaces of the lower intake and the block. kind of above and behind (maybe more behind) the water pump. white, maybe a tinge grey, smoke that quits just as soon as I let off the solenoid. as a side thought, i havent put any water in it yet (thinking ahead just in case i had to remove the engine again). could that be causing something to smoke?
batteries are good now. charged them on the bench (not the truck). I'll check my battery connections, the solenoid connections and the neg. cable grounded at the block. but this didnt happen when i turned it over prior to fixing the ground problem. it was all good. course, it didnt have the ground issue fixed so maybe there still is a bad draw somewhere.
thoughts?
hukd
PS: henderson is 3 hours (more or less depending on what part of DFW) SE of Dallas.

 

Try taking the ohm readings from the battery neg cable, to the eng, and the chasis and let's see how that looks. You don't want to keep burning stuff just to see what's smoking.

 

That smoke sounds like a bad ground of the batt cable. Where is your cable grounded at? May want to run one from block to frame. Fords are more picky than others about electrical connections.

 

I think it would be better to do a voltage drop across the ground cable while cranking. Sometimes you "see" more that way. (when it's under a load)

 

If wires are smoking you don't want to crank until the ground problem is fixed though. Cranking will make the damage worse.