I have a 2003 dodge dokota that will not start I found a bad terminal that was on the ground side that did not fix it everything comes on but it won’t crank unless I take the ground wires and put them straight to the negitive post on the. Battery what could be wrong
I am having a hard time understanding what your tell us.
Is the engine starting or tring to start when you short to ground?
Faulty grounds are a common problem.
The main ground cable from the battery connects to the engine block, this is because the starter needs hundreds of amps.
The frame then must be grounded to the engine block. These fail and all kinds of problems arise.
For a test I would run a jumper cable from the - negative battery terminal to the frame/body and if that solves your problem replace the ground cables.
more description on the terminal (do you mean the clamp that goes on the battery?)
and the ground wires (do you mean the cable/wire-strap that attaches to the battery?)
if you mean the negative clamp and cable/strap:
there might be a bad connection between the new clamp and strap.
there might be a bad connection between the strap and frame and when you pull it to make contact, on the strap and not the clamp, it then makes good contact.
My wild ass guess is the negative battery cable had a corroded terminal and the OP replaced it with a generic bolt on terminal. I would further guess that the corrosion had gotten into the cable itself and the new bolt on terminal is not working worth a damn, if the OP puts the cable end directly to the battery without the new bolt on end the car starts.
If the above is true, my suggestion would be to go buy a new battery cable and fix the car right once and for all.
Or you can continue to fuck around and waste time.