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Bruce, this is a diagram of 52 Cadillac wiring.  The hydramatic and safety switch are identical or very similar to the Pontiac in question.  It appears (to me) that the safety switch is the point of high resistance that is causing the voltage drop and resulting slow cranking or chattering of the solenoid.  By jumping the safety switch the solenoid engaged properly and cranked as it should.[/img]

Wayne thanks for the additional information.  I found the imgur images a little earlier this evening.  The diagram that shows the neutral safety switch shows it with two wires.  The switch on the particular car has three wires, I believe the third wire is actually the power source for the back up lights but I wanted the schematic to confirm that.

The switch on eBay is for a 53 and newer and of course they are different on 52's.  In 53 and subsequent years Pontiac eliminated the dashboard starter button which required a different ignition switch and a few other changes.

I do think that the 53 switch would work using the two screw contacts, the 52 doesn't have the male plug terminals.  I'd take a photo of the 52 but it's at my uncles home about thirty miles away where I've been commuting to work on the Poncho.

Thanks to Wayne and all.  The car is a '52 Pontiac Catalina straight 8 hydromatic, bone stock.  It is a 6 volt negative ground car.
Part of my problem is learning to trust what my diagnostic tests are telling me.  We tested the 1 1/2 year old battery with a load tester which showed it to be fine.  We took the battery back to NAPA and their test showed it to be defective, they stood nothing to gain as the battery was under warranty.

I have used jumpers to bypass virtually every device in the starting circuit.  I installed a push button Ford solenoid as you would on a chevy hot start problem.  The Ford solenoid will crank the starter and start the engine almost immediately if you use the push button on the Ford solenoid.  For those of you that aren't familiar with 52 Ponchos they have a keyed ignition switch and a starter push button on the dash.  The ignition switch only switches current to the coil and accessory circuits and does not activate the starter solenoid, that is done by the push button.

Finally this afternoon I think I may have isolated the problem to the neutral safety switch as I bypassed it and the starter cranked properly and fired the engine up immediately.  Strangely every wiring diagram I've found for early fifty Pontiacs omits the neutral safety switch completely as if it doesn't exist.  We've studied the factory manuals and I'm still searching the interweb for info and schematic of the safety switch.  I realize that they are simply a mechanical switch that is operated by the shift linkage but a schematic would be helpful.  The battle continues, it keeps old brains active and gives us something to cuss other than politicians.

Does it still have the large size battery cables?

Postitive cable is size 1/0 welding cable (brand new), ground strap is 1 1/2" width flat braided strap, also new.  Ground location on engine block was ground to bare metal.

I'm not going to ask for help diagnosing a slow cranking problem on a specific car I just want to make sure that I understand the testing procedure.  I'm trying to pinpoint the specific source of high resistance that is reducing the cranking voltage to a point that it won't spin the engine fast enough to start.
 
If I connect a multi-meter to the positive post of the battery and the Batt post on the solenoid then crank the engine is the multi-meter displaying the voltage between the two meter probes or is it showing the voltage in the entire circuit?
If it's displaying the voltage in the entire starting circuit it's only confirming what the slow cranking is demonstrating and is doing nothing to pinpoint the specific source. Yes?

If it's displaying the voltage between the two meter probe then it's identifying the location of the high resistance as being in the part of the circuit between the probes , Yes?

Trying to help a friend get and old 6volt stocker up and running and it's really kicking our butts getting it to start from the seat and run down the road.

Bought a Speedway 302 Ford motor built be Blueprint Motors. It has a two piece HEI distributor. I want to change to a Pertronix dist so that I can access the two ports into the intake for temp sensors. The lower portion of the HEI is refusing to release from the oil pump shaft. Anyone had any experience with these two piece units?

I told you Ford engines were nothing but trouble! Hee, hee

Out continuing to work on the A/C install in the woodie.  Supposed to be a refreshing 101 degrees today so probable won't get much done after about 2:00 pm.

I don't think it will cause any problems with the alternator or AC compressor, unless you spend a lot of time north of 5000 rpm

Spend very little time at that RPM but occasionally I feel the need to revisit my misspent childhood and wind things up a bit.  Unfortunately the woodie doesn't go faster it just gets louder.

I think you should move the motor back.

What time will you be here to help with that

So in the process of adding A/C to the Woodie I hit a question.  Up until now I've been running two belts, one to the Alt the other to the P/S pump.  The water pump pulley is 6 1/4" diameter, the crank pulley is 6 3/4" and the P/S pulley is 5 3/4".

I'm running a mechanical fan and to hopefully stay ahead of any heating problems I want to change the crank pulley to a 7 1/4" model to increase the fan and water pump speed.  

So far I've installed the 7 5/16" two groove pulley and added a 6 3/4" add-on third crank pulley to run the P/S pump.  By using the smaller diameter add-on pulley I won't be changing the pump pulley ratio. (it seems to perform properly so I didn't want to mess with it).

Question is, by increasing the diameter of the crank pulley to "speed things up" will the A/C Compressor or Alternator be adversely effected by the higher RPM?  I don't remember ever seeing an up sized alternator or A/C pulley.  

If my math is even close my current set up of 6 3/4" crank pulley and 6 1/4" water pump pulley would mean that the water pump pulley would be at 5940 RPM if the crank pulley is at 5500.  With the 7 5/16" crank pulley the water pump pulley would be at 6325 RPM at the same engine speed.  Is this increase anything to be concerned with?  Thnx Mike

I never posted a lotl but visited a couple of times a day just to see what was up.  Then I just kind of fell out of the habit, time passed, you all know how it is.

A couple of days ago I was struggling for an answer to a car problem and thought of all of the real world experience (and smart remarks) that I had seen posted here and gave it a try.

When checking for responses I read through a few of the threads and realized that I missed the personalities (and BS artists) on here.  I have grown a bit weary of the semi-similar boards that rigidly police the subject matter rather than allow the threads to develop in whatever direction they take, not realizing that it's the people not the subject matter that make the board what it is.

I'll stop here before I go too far and some of you start getting weepy on me.  At any rate I'm officially back...Mike H.

You could drive the AC compressor off the rear belt, and drive the alternator off the second pulley on the AC compressor.

I was hoping you'd respond to my question.  I'll check that possibility in the morning.  Not sure that a belt running between the AC & Alt won't interfere with the upper radiator hose, but that may be an easier fix

Finally getting around to installing A/C on my '41 Ford.  Engine is a generic 350.  Because the engine was installed further forward than is usually seen.  The clearance between the nose of the short water pump and radiator is pretty minimal.  I've been running a two groove pump pulley and a two groove crank pulley. In order to run A/C, PS and Alternator the normal arrangement is to use an add-on single groove crank pulley in addition to the two groove.  
If possible I need to stay with the two groove pulleys because the third piece is interfering with the mechanical fan.  Anyone seen this done or have suggestions on the parts and belt routing necessary to accomplish this?

You probably don't want to hear this but you probably are better off to bite the bullet & move the motor/trans mounts as far back as possible. If you stay w/the mechanical fan you will need a shroud for sure. Seems like the add on single groove pulley was for PS only.

Well that ain't happening...I'll figure it out sooner or later, I just thought someone might have already solved the problem and wouldn't mind sharing how they did it.  Thanks

Finally getting around to installing A/C on my '41 Ford.  Engine is a generic 350.  Because the engine was installed further forward than is usually seen.  The clearance between the nose of the short water pump and radiator is pretty minimal.  I've been running a two groove pump pulley and a two groove crank pulley. In order to run A/C, PS and Alternator the normal arrangement is to use an add-on single groove crank pulley in addition to the two groove.  
If possible I need to stay with the two groove pulleys because the third piece is interfering with the mechanical fan.  Anyone seen this done or have suggestions on the parts and belt routing necessary to accomplish this?

I've moved to a new house and in planning the garage I found the information posted on the Garage Journal concerning the 44" HF boxes.  I looked them over and bought three.  Couldn't be happier with them.  I also purchased an end box to use in making up a workbench from the base units.  
My only warning would be to ask the nice folks at your HF store to bust open the units for damage inspection and to look the items over very carefully for damage.  They may not like the idea but it's your dime.  From what I've seen locally transport damage is pretty common on these units.
I don't need the cabinets to withstand the stress and wear that a pro mechanic would put on them but I don't see anything that would make me think they wouldn't last a long time.