So a couple of weeks ago, it took my 442 to do a little "industrial park" testing. After a few donuts without coffee, it stalled and it would not start again. (I know, abusing my classico, but I built it and thought I could fix it)It would not jump start. Slow cranking 1-2 seconds and then no crank.
Nice ride home on a flatbed. Battery was drained, charged it up, one slow crank and then nothing. Checked the resistance on my battery cables and they seemed fine? Removed the Powermaster 9510. Took it to parts store but they wouldn't test it but the battery was tested ok. So I put it all back in. Cranked and it fired up then stalled as my usual cold starts. Cranked it over again, couple of spins of the starter then dead battery. Get out and see a plume of magical white smoke and the accompanying electric smell as well as a slight "sizzling" sound coming from the starter area. Panicked and removed the negative cable. Both battery cables were hot as hell and the starter even hotter. Removed the starter wearing welding gloves.
Starter wire at the solenoid is working as it should when turned to Start. Put a known working starter in as well as the battery from my F85. Nothing but a slow 1-2 second crank. then nothing.
Thinking now that there is a definite short, going to isolate and and check the cables... I broke something cause it had been running and starting fine up until the abuse...
FYI it is a floor shift Dual Gate and it has the NS in the shifter, converted from a column shift which is fine.

 

Tom, make sure you have the ground strap from the firewall to the back of the
right rear of the head in place.

 

It seems tight but going to check contact surfaces again. It does seem as though I lost a ground somewhere.

 

Sometimes paint gets in the way of a good ground. Following along
and hope you get it figured out.