today i did a little spring cleaning on the '79. washed the paint, and then drove it up to the garage and vacuumed it out. when i went to restart it, i got a half-hearted crank and a bunch of clicks from the starter in rapid succession. i figured i had a loose cable or something, so i popped the hood and jiggled the connections. tried it again, this time i noticed a cloud of smoke from the driver's side!

turned out the black wire coming from the alternator and going to the regulator had melted down between the two connectors(it looked untouched otherwise). what does this have to do with starting the truck?

i tried starting it by unconnecting the solenoid plug and using a jumper wire from the battery to the solenoid, and still got the same effect with the smoke and all with the ignition on.

has anybody had a problem like this? i'm stumped <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" />

If I was to guess.....I would say the starter circuit was "ground hunting". You may not have a ground from engine block to body/frame......is the short 10 gauge ground wire still there near the backside of the valve cover?

well, i pulled off the heavy gauge ground that goes from the frame to the body on the passenger side, cleaned it up with a wire brush and reinstalled it. now everything works fine!

amazing how a corroded ground wire can almost make an entirely unrelated part of my truck go up in flames <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/angry.gif" alt="" />