Electrical help needed

[Jeepeagle]

I'm dumbfounded with a strange, but probably insultingly simple, electrical problem I'm having with my '78 CJ5 . After replacing my flywheel ring, and starter, my ignition coil seemed to be shorting out. The starter would turn the flywheel, which did turn the engine, but nothing sparked. I cleaned the contacts on the coil, and it did crank the jeep, but it still sounded like the coil was bad.

So I replaced it with an OEM one from Advanceauto, and once installed I tried to crank. It spun the engine for about a second, and then NOTHING. I'm not getting any power reading on the guage, unless I shake some of the solenoid wires now and then. But then it only reads 12 on the gauge, and when I try to crank, it just makes a click noise and then won't do anything. I thought it could be the batt, but even when being jumped off by another vehicle, it still will only click once and then nothing.

I've even replaced the solenoid, reinstalled the old ignition coil, and let the batt charge up using the other vehicle and jumper cables. There was a ground wire next to the solenoid that wasn't going anywhere, but I don't think it was supposed to be attatched to the soleoid.

needless to say I'm getting pretty annoyed. Thanks for any help.

 

[BrockGrimes]

Toss up a pic of your wiring around the solenoid, starter, coil.

I'm wondering if it's a bad ground or the starter is hung, but that wouldn't really
explain the above symptoms.

 

[Jeepeagle]

Thanks, but no need to now. I figured it out. Turns out my original solenoid was bad, and so was the replacement. I just bought another new solenoid, replaced some bad wires, and force grounded the solenoid. I got a new negative battery cable that had 2 extra leads off of it so I could ground the solenoid seperately, and while I was at it I gave the dash a seperate ground. I'm not 100% sure what part of that fixed it, but when it was all installed the jeep fired right up. Thanks though.

 

[Trapshooter]

Those pesky grounds get a guy everytime.........