First off. Red's aren't grounds, those are +12v power wires. Theres also no ground that runs from the starter to the fuse box, that is the Power wire that provides +12v power to the starter from the battery. The Ground for the starter is provided by the metal case of the starter, engine block and then finally the ground cable to the car chassis. If your Ford mechanic buddy didnt know that, you need to find a new mechanic. The stock ground wire is normally a flat braided cable on the driver side that runs from one of the motor mount bolts to a bolt on the bottom side of the driver side frame rail.
Since you shorted the main fuse panel directly to ground, you likely fried some wiring. Hopefully for you it wasnt any of the wiring in the fuse box, but i would highly recommend inspecting it to be sure.
If you get a click or a constantly tapping like sound when you turn the key, it could be a bad power connection to the starter. It could also be a bad wire from it being shorted out.
You really need to post photos of what your referring to with questions like that. Trying to diagnose issues online is damn near impossible.
Them throw in the curve ball of not nothing how or what was done in "mods" due to the experience/quality (or lack of) by previous owners, mechanics, etc and it becomes even more difficult.
I get it man, there are a lot of unknowns and it doesn't help that I was in a rush to write and send that last message. But I am a DIY guy and I am not formally trained in any kind of mechanical or electrical work. My passion for Mustangs and cars in general set me out to learn as much as I could for free through researching countless hours online, tapping friends and what not. That being said, I may use some incorrect terminology, or may not expain something as it SHOULD be explained, I just don't know any better you know :tongue3:?
But what I am really wondering at this very moment is what has the motor lodged, not being able to spin by hand or by ignition? Keep in mind guys, the motor DID NOT turn by hand when I was trying to do the lash adjusters; it only turned by hand once we hit the ignition withe the plugs out. I then replaced all lash adjusters, making sure to turn the crank by hand to get the cam lobes to the flats and respective pistons near the bottom of the stroke so I could then pop the followers out, inspect, and continue on my way replacing the lash adjusters.
Now, I did not do anything special with the crank(meaning place it at 9 oclock or anything like that) before I started, I simply turned the crank a couple of times by hand and popped whichever followers that showed the piston at the bottom (or near) of its stroke out, which also meant the cam lobe was more or less on it's flat, and I popped the lash adjusters out and replaced. Car fires right up, no more loud tapping just a higher pitched valvetrain noise but we all agreed it sounded healthy which it showed on the first 3 passes before dying on the dyno. And moreso, for the car to shut off at the very top of the 4th pull on the dyno and then NOT being able to be turned by hand has me thinking both times the car would not turn by hand have to be related.
Sorry, I've had a few beers and I am tired, frustrated, a bit down and more or less am tired of dealing with this issue lol. Please ignore the excessive comma use and bad overall grammar and punctuation...the IPA made me do it :mfr_omg: