im suspecting the ground may be bad, what do you have the main battery ground cable connected to? also, the other terminal on the fender solenoid, what is the I stud wired to? im pretty sure you wont need it for this set up.

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and keep in mind that when you touched the starter wire to the battery and it didnt fire, even if you had full battery power and it spun the hell out of it, it wouldnt run because there was no power to the injector pump if the key was off. if you can get it to turn the engine at a normal cranking speed, then we can dick with the ignition to the solenoid and IP. A healthy 12 valve with a primed fuel system and strong battery should start after one second or less of turning the key.

 

The main ground cable is connected to the frame, and the "I" terminal is just a small wire going to the top solenoid mounting bolt for extra ground.

 

well it looks like that I terminal is where the smoke came out, i dont think you want to ground that, cut it off and throw it away. that solenoid grounds by its mounting base where it is bolted to the frame. If you have the battery grounded to the frame of the truck, and the engine is sitting on rubber mounts, your starter isnt going to get enough ground to work, that starter pulls a lot of amprage, gound the engine block to the frame, the frame to the battery and the body to the battery, or the frame. the ignition , the lights and everything on the truck grounds to the body. the body needs ground straps because it sits on rubber as well.Basically everything needs a bad *** ground to be reliable.

The standard Ford Solenoid 'S' terminal activates the solenoid, 'S' for
'Start'. The 'I' terminal is for 'Ignition' and will have full +12 on it
when the solenoid has been activated by the 'S' terminal. The 'I'
terminal is the one that goes straight to the + side of the coil,
to give full battery voltage to the coil for starting. It is open
(i.e., no voltage) when the solenoid is not activated.

based on the above info, you are sending 12v+ straight to the fender bolt, thats why smoke is shooting out.

 

Oh, ok. Yea that "I" terminal never had anything hooked to it, some guys told I needed to ground that terminal (guess they're wrong). Ok, so I guess I will work on making a bad *** ground system and get back to ya.

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Then how come when I put a test light to the terminals, one only lights as if it was ground and the other as positive?

I've grounded the engine to the frame and it still isn't cranking with the key. Also, on the diagram you drew, judging by the where the "S" mark is, it looks as if your cables are switched (The starter cable is on the right, not the left like mine).

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Even with the key ON, I touch the 10 ga. wire to the battery and it just clicks and slowly turns the engine over for a few for seconds until it just gives up until I touch it again.

 

mine is wired that way, you can use it either way, my truck was wired that way from ford so i just kept it that way. if you put your positive lead to the hot side of the starter solenoid,and ground it on the other side, it will seek a ground through the starter motor coil, the same as putting a testlight inline of a battery and a lightbulb or fan motor. The way that fender solenoid works is when you put power to the s stud, the coil inside it pushes the contactor into the back of those two studs and closes the circuit, so polarity isnt an issue, it really should technically be called a relay, as it is using a low amprage circuit to control a high amprage circuit. It sounds to me like you may have a bad battery or starter. When you toutch that 10 ga wire to the battery to engage the starter, you are by-passing that fender relay completely. If the starter has a good ground and a good power source, then applying 12 volts to that little wire should make it crank.

Did you start that engine before you took it out of the dodge? Can you rotate it with a braker-bar?
Whats the battery voltage?

if you want to check the starter by its self run the positive cable from the battery directly to the starter, run the ground to the engine block from the bettery and put 12 volts to the little wire on the starter, if it dosent turn over something is wrong with it.

 

MY STARTER IS BAD. I just got my starter out and tested it. Nothing happened when I put a positive end to the large stud (battery cable), but when I put it to the small stud (10ga. wire) it shot the rod out, but didn't spin...I'll have a new one in the morning.

Sorry for the crappy phone video quality

 

Try hooking the hot wire up to the big terminal on the starter while in that test position, then run a small jumper to the small terminal. You have to have juice to both in order for it to pop out AND spin.

The big terminal on the starter provides power to the starter motor, but there is an internal solenoid with the starter bendix (I believe that's starter terminology) which is what the small terminal on the starter powers. Once juice is sent to that small terminal, it pops out the starter gear and makes contact inside the starter for the big terminal to juice the starter motor and spin it. If that makes sense...

 

I tried jumping both and it still wouldn't spin. Plus when I pulled the starter out of the truck it had a strong burnt smell.

 

whats a new starter when your putting a cummins in aford anyway are we ready for the alternator yet?

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Brand new starter. Charged my battery last night. Nothing. This may be a really dumb question, but does my tach wire need to be hooked up in order for this truck to fire correctly??