The neg. wire had aready parted company from the terminal. From what I gathered I was doing some arc welding down there. The "Question" is what damage did I do so far ??? What caused it ??? The 6 volt battery is taking a charge. The neg. wire to the starter did get quite warm and the terminal in the starter is loose.
I'm trying to figure out just what happened. Did the positive cable remain connected and intact? And the negative cable came loose?
Start by replacing the negative cable. Also check all connections between the battery and starter. Clean the mating surfaces with sandpaper. It won't hurt to assemble with di-electric grease. Also, check your starter contact, it's on top of the starter where the positive cable connects. Is it heavily burnt? If so, replace it. Only a few bucks. If this doesn't fix it, you will need to check the starter.
It sounds like you had a bad connection, which caused the circuit to need more amperage to do the job. As it worsened, it used more power until it was bad enough to no longer turn the starter and overheated the battery cable.
