Well I went back out, and the jumpercable I was using was pretty puny.. so I got creative!
I took the old ground wire off the transmission.. (not really a wire.. it's really about a foot long braided flat wire) and I sanded down to bare metal a spot right on the truck frame right next to the battery.
I then used a pair of vice grips to clamp the one end of the "ground braid" to the frame, then connected it to the battery.
She turns over faster now, but still not anywhere near the kind of speed you'd expect to have to get an engine to start.
I suspect that perhaps my hot wire isn't getting enough juice to the starter. The ends were pretty crappy earlier this month when I tried my first start and discovered the ringgear was toast, so I cleaned them off good, and it cranked long enough to bust the ring gear.
So I guess tomorrow i'll see about replacing the hot wire cable, and probably get a new ground wire, too.. just for $#its and giggles.
I like the idea of running the ground to one of the starter mounting bolts.. with a heavy enough gauge wire, is there any voltage loss issues with running it to the starter bolt?
