if you dont already know you need to be extremely careful with metal objects neer your battery, you got off easy, i was helping a friend work on a truck one time he sat a wrench on top of the battery it crossed the terminals the hydrogen gasses from the battery ignited blew up the battery and started the truck on fire, it was a total loss by the time the fire department got there, and we could not get the fire out ourselves.

My '85 had a body->block ground strap, down by the passenger side motor mount. Also head->body ground strap at the back end of the head.

Thanks for the info guys. I checked the grounds and they seem OK, I want to replace them with heavier gauge wire when I get the chance. When I pull the starter today I'll see if I can tell what started the zapping, hopefully I can get a rebuild kit and keep the nippodenso starter.

Well, I replaced the starter today-everything starts and runs fine now. When I got the starter out, the cable between the magnetic switch and the starter motor was fried too. If the key doesn't release in my ignition, the starter motor will continue to run without the pinion being engaged-I'm wondering if my friend's wife was driving with the starter motor running and it burned itself out, shorted, and fried the cables? Anyway, after checking I have all the grounds that I should, but I want to replace them with heavier gauge wire and new terminals. Thanks again for all the help guys!