Trunk Battery- Starter Ground Issue

[351carlo]

So I've got a 70 with a 351c. Battery is in the trunk, ran a Summit kit with the positive going the whole way up front and the negative grounding to the passenger rear subframe. My Starter will click (solenoid) but won't spin when put into the vehicle. Yesterday it did spin, quite a few times before it started just clicking again. I took the starter out and it bench tested just fine. Hooked it back up to the car and just the click.

This leads me to believe it's a bad ground. I have a ground running from the shock tower bolt up top to the rear most intake bolt. What can I do to improve grounding, or pinpoint my issue?

I guess what concerns me is the fact that it worked for a while yesterday, then just stopped working.

 

[Pbum5]

If your grounds look good then check your battery. Sounds like it is not giving enough power.
The cable size is also important. The bigger the cable the better. What gauge cables did you kit come with?

 

[mustangdave]

There should be a ground going from back of engine (passenger side back of head) to the firewall. If this is there and in good shape, I wonder about your new ground. Did you scrape off the paint so you would have a good connection?

 

[CraigMBA]

You can go around the car with a volt meter looking for voltage drops, but I'd try the easy way first if I were you.

Take a set of jumper cables and connect from the engine block to somewhere on the chassis. If that fixes it, your current engine ground isn't any good.

If that doesn't fix it, take the cables to the trunk and try grounding the battery negative to the bumper. If that fixes it, your ground cable isn't any good.

If the car worked before you screwed with it and it won't work now, it has to be one of those two because all you really changed electrically when you moved the battery was the ground. The positive cable is longer, but it has the same path and should be OK.

You might try checking for a charged battery too.

 

[dennis112]

So I've got a 70 with a 351c. Battery is in the trunk, ran a Summit kit with the positive going the whole way up front and the negative grounding to the passenger rear subframe. My Starter will click (solenoid) but won't spin when put into the vehicle. Yesterday it did spin, quite a few times before it started just clicking again. I took the starter out and it bench tested just fine. Hooked it back up to the car and just the click.

This leads me to believe it's a bad ground. I have a ground running from the shock tower bolt up top to the rear most intake bolt. What can I do to improve grounding, or pinpoint my issue?

I guess what concerns me is the fact that it worked for a while yesterday, then just stopped working.

How good is the ground in your trunk? Did you bare some metal so that the cable connector makes a good solid connection?

Clicking solenoid is often caused by a low battery. How charged is yours?

 

[67 restomod]

I had the same problem when I moved my battery to the trunk. The problem is the ground to frame, it has to be clean, NO paint or udercoating. The trick with the jumper cables will tell you.

 

[351w_swap]

Put a lock washer under the bolt at both connections. They scrape enough paint off to provide a proper ground.

 

[351carlo]

Forgot... I did hook up my big battery charger set on car start.

I'll have to try the jumper cables trick. Good call.

I thought my trunk ground was good, but I'll just redo everything when it's not so damn hot outside.

Thanks guys.

 

[outlaw66]

Run the ground cable back fwd to the bellhousing and you want have anymore problems. I always had problems with trunk gounds. When I rewired the 66, I ran the battery ground cable all the way fwd to the bellhousing and have never had any electrical problems. I also used 2.0 welding cable for both battery cables.

Outlaw

 

[iskwezm]

Clicking solenoid is often caused by a low battery.

its also a symptom of high resistance on a bad ground.

 

[HistoricMustang]

I actually use two grounds. One off the back of the intake and one off the block to the front frame rail using heavy duty welding cable.

It is imperative that you get a good ground or all kind of electrical gremlins will hang around for a long time.

HistoricMustang