[cdiedrick]

I am working on a 79 Tbird, I have done a lot of work to it, and my last adventure required me to pull the engine to fix an oil leak. I put it back together, and now when I crank the engine, it cranks slow, and then won't crank.
The engine is a 351M, mild work done to it, ran great before I pulled the engine and started great. Battery is new, cables are newer, solenoid is good, and starter is about 2 years old. The hood is off and I have noticed that when I crank the engine the negative cable jumps arounds when the starter is activated. Again it gets hot and seems to have a rubbery effect when it jumps. Checked grounds, and cleaned posts and grounds also.
Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chris Diedrick

[Henry Highrise]

Replace the negative cable with one of a larger guage, make sure the connections on each end are clean and tight, Check your ground strap that goes from the frame to your engine also.

[fiscus]

does the negative cable go straight to the engine block? it should.

[cdiedrick]

It ended being the torque convertor not in correctly, once I fixed that, it persisted, so I had the starter tested, it got hot, replaced it, and everything is just fine now
Thanks guys
Chris Diedrick

[larryblack]

The dancing cable usually means high amps are being drawn. Things get hot real fast when you draw high amps.

Do like was suggested, clean the connections and keep them clean. When you get the green crud of death on the lugs and in the wire, get a new wire.

[IanRiordan]

Glad you fixed it, I was working at a saab(small s) dealer in the early 90's and a know-all collegue did a top end rebuild on a twin cam four. It had the symptoms you describe and sounded really deep out the pipe. I told him to recheck the cam timing, he wouldn't,told him to do a comp test. It buried the gauge and blew it out of his hand, intake cam was a tooth advanced. Easy to diag if you think about it.