The ground cable shouldn't get hot--that to me,indicates a high resistance..might not hurt to replace it if its original...could be it has only a few strands inside it somewhere making contact,then loses connection when it heats up..
I had a stalling problem on my '72 K5 that came and went I couldn't pin down the cause for a long time--every time I replaced something and it wouldn't stall again for days,I thought I had it licked--then it did it again..this time after it stalled,I could not get the starter to crank,it would just go "clunk",and not spin the engine over..
I finally found the issue--some previous owner must have decided to use a top post battery instead of the original side post type,and they just snipped off the side terminal end off the positive cable and for some unknown reason they spliced about 12" of a top post cable to the original cable,soldered it with plumbing pipe solder and flux,then taped up the splice and shoved it up under the battery tray..
The cables at the splice were just a lump of white corrosion with electrical tape wrapped around them,and you could see only a few strands of good copper remained,the acid core solder and flux ate the copper and turned it to white dust..
I used a jumper cable from the positive battery terminal right to the starter to by-pass the positive cable,and it cranked and fired right up..
The truck never stalled again after I replaced the battery cables..the ground cable evidently had been replaced with a top post type,but they decided to butcher & splice the positive cable...
