06 ford taurus won't start

06 ford Taurus won't start alternator is good battery is good new starter. I turn the key you can hear the starter click but it turn over or the engine turns really slow if at all. I put another battery in it and it does the exact same thing. Turn the key and you can see the cable on the starter smoke a little bit. I turned the crank case with a socket wrench and it turns fine. Any idea what the problem could be?

If the wire is smoking then there is either a large load, or poor connection. Have you actually checked the battery voltage and not just assumed it was a good battery? Also, alternator has nothing to do with a car starting.

Yes I check the voltage and even took it to be tested and it was fine. But just to make sure I even took my battery out of my van and it still the same thing. And put that battery from the into my van and it started right up.

The other end of the battery cable sometimes will either become loose or get corrosion or soaked with leaked oil and doesn't have a good connection to allow the flow of electricity.

Are the battery cables molded cables like originally came with the car, or has someone replaced one of the ends with the bolt-on style clamp? Are the connections at the battery clean and tight?

-Rod

I put new cables on and drop the starter and cleaned all the oil residue off cleaned the cable that goes to the fuse box and the negative cable also. Is there a possibility it could be a bad ground didn't change that because it still looked good.

In order for the starter to work the entire circuit needs to be be able to provide enough current. The ground is part of that circuit. However, if it was the positive cable that was smoking, the high current draw was likely between where the cable was getting warm and the starter motor. For the positive cable to generate that much heat, it was getting a good ground from somewhere.

-Rod

I was thinking maybe it could be the wire going to the solenoid it could be grounded out somewhere between the ignition switch to the solenoid.

You mention that you can hear the starter click and the cable on the starter smokes. The click you are hearing is likely the start solenoid. For the starter to click and the cable to start smoking after the click, the signal from the ignition switch is getting to the starter solenoid. Your description suggests the issue is a large current draw on the circuit connecting the starter to the battery.

Do you have a means of bench testing the starter motor assembly, or possibly removing the mounting bolts of the starter and testing the starter connected to the car to help determine if the starter assembly is bad or if there is something causing the starter motor to bind up with installed?

-Rod

You mention that you can hear the starter click and the cable on the starter smokes. The click you are hearing is likely the start solenoid. For the starter to click and the cable to start smoking after the click, the signal from the ignition switch is getting to the starter solenoid. Your description suggests the issue is a large current draw on the circuit connecting the starter to the battery.

Do you have a means of bench testing the starter motor assembly, or possibly removing the mounting bolts of the starter and testing the starter connected to the car to help determine if the starter assembly is bad or if there is something causing the starter motor to bind up with installed?

-Rod

Yeah I already took it out and had it bench tested at AutoZone everything passed. I even put a new starter in and it still did the samething so I'm thinking it's in the ignition wire to the solenoid might be touch ground somewhere.

So which wire at the starter do you see smoking a bit when trying to start? Is it the small trigger wire (White/Pink) or the heavy gauge main (red) power wire?

-Rod