...So I recently bought an 1985 Ram 50. it has spent its entire life as a Joshua Tree National parks vehicle. I bought it from a guy that got it at auction. he put in new: battery, starter, mikuni carb, cap, wires, and plugs. it ran ok when I got it. It defiantly has some carb tuning issues but mainly from a clogged accel pump. I pulled he carb off and cleaned everything out. I put everything back together cranked it over once and then nothing but clicks from the starter. so I started troubleshooting. had been driving it off and on for a few weeks with no problems.

checked voltages
jumped the solenoid, plunges out wont spin

took starter out and bench checked, good
new starter bench check good, installed, didn't fix the problem

took both starters hooked up the solenoid wires used jumper cables off the battery hooked the to the starter, turned the key WORKS!
Remade all the chassis and battery grounds still didn’t fix it, plunges out wont spin. Although it didn’t turn over once but only that one time.

Replaced coil and factory ballast resistor still doesn’t work
ballast resistor gets really hot like melting the boot hot

so that’s where I stopped. I’m lost I’ve tried just about anything you can come up with. The only thing is that when I use a jumper wire on the solenoid it does arc a little bit on the terminal.

Im leaning towards a possible short but I have no idea where to start looking.

Any input is greatly appreciated. I have to get this thing running and SMOGed soon.

Hi and welcome to mightyram. Sorry but your choice with text made your entire post invisible. So here is where I'd start. Check power into and out of the bypass relay so you know it's swapping circuits from the ignition when you hit the key. Check the main positive lead to the starter motor and the battery terminals - look for corrosion/hot spots where the insulation looks sketchy etc. It might not be allowing enough cranking current to pass through it. If you can borrow a main positive lead and test it out it might throw you some bread crumbs. Check the polarity on the coil and ballast resistor connections (easy enough to mess up). Make sure all the ground leads are solid and clean and are connected (you'd be surprised how one dud ground can affect a whole vehicle...) Electrics are tricky and you never know what has been done to an older vehicle.