Electrical Issue

[bugedd]

So I just got the motor back iin the car and all hooked up. I put the battery in and turned it over and had a strange spark in the engine bay. The oil line for the gauge touched the body and sparked.
I am running the car with negative ground, stock generator and such. Does that mean I need to polarize the generator again, or is something else going on here? I am pretty sure all is hooked up properly. There isn't much to screw up

 

[smaceng]

Did you remember to reattach the ground strap?
Classic symptoms.
Scott in CA

 

[Billm]

Yep- ground strap.
I will often put a redundant ground strap around one of the motor mounts, one end to the top of the mount, one to the bottom of the same mount.
BillM

 

[bugedd]

Ground strap is on, actually never took it off the body. But maybe cause it wasn't tight on the negative terminal?? I just had both sitting on the battery, not tightened down.

 

[DrEntropy]

Chassis to ENGINE ground strap. Down near the starter or as Billm suggests, the motor mount trick.

If you neglect to run an engine-to-chassis ground strap you will soon have a melted throttle cable or worse.

 

[bugedd]

huh, don't have one of those. Guess I better pick one up tomorrow.