The truck is a 1997 F150 4.2 Liter V6 with automatic transmisson and
MY FATHER IN LAW IS DRIVING ME CRAZY. his truck hasnt run in 6 months. i decide to help him so i can get in good with my new father in law. he does all the work him self and he bolts the starter in. I am determined that he is the reason the truck wont run because when he bolted the starter up the postive battery cable and the negative battery cable got so hot that the cables burnt my hand. the truck turns over some what the fan will turn just a couple of revoloutions then it stops the starter just makes a noise like the internal fan or whatever is in the start tries to spin up but doesnt. we know have a new starter and i told him that he needs to cut the smaller of the two hot wires and crimp into the new heat shrink wire that come with his new starter. i also told him that the bigger hot wire bolts on the top bolt and the ground wire goes on the bottom. he argues that he was told that the insulted wire that runs from the start to the solinoid thats bolted to the start is the ground wire and that your not suppose to bolt anything to that bottom bolt. Well you guys tell me whose right because what i really wanna do is just beat the H*ll out of the truck. GRRRRRRRRRRRR

 

From what I can determine without looking under his hood, there is a ground wire that goes on one of the mounting bolts for the starter. One starter bolt is a standard bolt and the other has a threaded stud above the hex head that the bolt is tightened down with. The ground wire goes on the threaded stud and is secured by a nut. At the starter solenoid, there are two red wires to connect. One is a heavy battery cable. The other is a 12 gauge wire that is from the starter relay up on the fire wall.

What has me concerned about what you said is hydrolock. When the fan turns a bit and stops and the starter sounds like it is straining, that is symptomatic of water in a cylinder which is hydrolocking the engine. This is a symptom that the 4.2L V-6 is known for and since this is a `97 model that hasn't been running for a while, then this is a distinct possibility. I would put a wrench on the crank bolt at the front of the engine and would try turning it over by hand. If it doesn't turn over freely, then pull the plugs and turn it over. If water comes spewing out of a spark plug hole, then it is in need of upper intake gaskets at minimum and a major overhaul if there is other damage such as a bent connecting rod. Good luck!