I have a 1969 Ford Galaxie 500 V8 302. I recently had to adjust the timing and re tune the carburetor after some wiring issues. For some reason when I hooked up the battery, it melted the ground wire to the alternator. So I replaced all the wires running from the alternator to the solenoid. Now, when trying to start the car, it will sputter and if i pump the gas it sputters and almost catches, to the point that it will disengage the starter. Its sputtering and wants to start but it wont catch. Advice? NOTE: The car HAS ran since the wiring was replaced! It was idling really high and it was the timing that was causing it.
Also, the wiring for the solenoid seems to be wrong in some way, as the battery always dies overnight. Thanks!

 

I would sort out the electrical stuff first.

Here is a general purpose wiring diagram of a starting system:

and a charging system with an external voltage regulator:
You may Google search for your particular vehicle.

 

Something you can check,
the ground from the engine/starter to the battery. It could be either missing, poor connection or loose. Have seen instances where load from starter trying to start the engine had no ground and used whatever small grounds that were available and cooked them.
Bluewind provided some nice diagrams that should make it easy to check.

Just noticed something , if your vehicle has a generator instead of an alternator the cut-out relay in the voltage regulator may be staying closed when it should be opening when engine RPM is too low to generate current.

 

I checked the grounds(which look fine), and found the brown wire running from the solenoid to the starter relay, split and exposed. I replace replaced it but its still doing the same catching. Btw, there isnt a generator anymore. It was replaced with a brand spankin new alternator right before I bought it last fall. And it has driven with it.

 

So we are on the same page, the relay is located on the fender well or firewall and it should have the cable from the positive post of the battery connected to one of the large terminals. Also there may be one or two other wires connected to that same terminal and they generally supply the lights and battery power to the rest of the vehicle. These wires are usually protected with a fuse or fusible link.
If the relay has two large and two small terminals , one of the small ones is connected to ground and the other is connected to the start terminal of the ignition switch.
There should be only one cable on the other large terminal of the relay and that goes to the starter. When you turn the key to start position , the relay makes contact with the two large terminals and causes the starter to operate.
There are some variations, but that is generally how they work.
If your relay/solenoid only has one small terminal , that gets connected to the wire from the ign switch start position. The ground for the relay coil is made through the relay mounting.
If you want to, tell me what wires you have going to the relay/solenoid and where you think they go and I will try to help sort them out for you .

 

when you adjusted the timing did you happen to pull out the dist. shaft or did you time it by ear?

 

Well I managed to get the car running. The timing was just really off. Woops The timing it still badly off but im going to make an attempt tomorrow to find someone with a timing light. At least now it started and tends to stay on. Still needs a little tweaking.
But I replace one wire that was exposed because of some bad insulation. I dont think it was part of the battery draining unfortunately. In the morning I will post a picture of the Solenoid wiring.

 

I have some other questions to ask you. The first one is Do have the stock carb. or is it an aftermarket one? Second is on your charging system is there a voltage control that is mounted next to the radiator?

 

Im sorry for some reason my last response to this didnt appear! I believe it is in fact the stock carb! Also, yes there is a LARGE voltage regulator mounted near the battery on the front fender area. Its very rusted but it has the original stickers and everything in place so it seems age hasnt affected it too much. Although I cannot obviously judge that.

 

you need to change that regulator for some reason or another the rust has eaten through and shorting out causing the car to run on the battery alone.