[Chuck Hurley]

For almost certain you have a bad ground from the battery to the engine block and/or a bad ground from the battery to the frame of the car.

Check the negative terminal of the battery and confirm that there is a heavy wire going to the engine block. It should be at least the diameter of your little finger. The negative side of the battery should go directly to the engine and several small braided type grounds should go to the frame from the engine block.

While installing the new engine in my Cobra guess what was the only line I forgot to connect and guess what the symptons were?

You can easily burn up a wiring harness as the small ground wires try to carry the starting current and are incapable of doing so.

Don't just visually check, grab and pull to make sure that what looks like a wire that is connected is firmly connected.

Good Luck