Thanks for the feedback and don't beat yourself up too much because we have all screwed up at one time or another. I have a clamp on the frame rail just to prevent this from happening. Working on aircraft makes me paranoid about these issues.
This is one advantage of using the Ford solenoid besides the heat soak problem. If the battery cable is connected to the Ford solenoid as a two piece cable, the part on the starter side of the solenoid is dead except for during cranking.
This wouldn't work if the starter solenoid was used as a junction like the 73 and up years
but one could always use the battery side of the Ford solenoid for that.
Here is a picture of how it would work.
