I made progress, I have the engine running but I have one issue. My issue is the grounding. When I go to crank the car the starter does not respond. I need to use a jumper cable, ground it to the chassis then clamp on the starter. This is the only way the starter cranks, I am aware of the little grown wire that attaches from the chassis to the top of the manual tranny, but for some reason that is not sufficient enough. Do you have any ideas what may be happening?

 

try a thicker aka lower gauge wire for the pos connection from the starter to the battery, and also add a ground to the tranny to neg on the battery. maybe they are corroded, clean the connections as well.