1972 Delta 88 350 with ProForm distributor. I have three wires going to starter. Red power to batter, purple wire that goes to main harness above brake booster and a smaller gauge tan/brown wire that goes from starter to a splice/terminal where another wire is spliced in that goes to the harness above brake booster. The splice/terminal on tan/brown wire in not connected to anything, was electrical taped. The starter worked and car ran but The tan/brown wire got hot so I shut it down. I have a red fusible link at the firewall on what I think is horn relay.
should I just replace this tan/brown or was this suppose to be a second fusible link? Is my wiring missing something?
thoughts?
thanks

 

From the factory, your car had three wires on the starter, a battery cable to the large post in the solenoid, a purple wire to the "S" (for START) terminal, and a yellow wire to the "R" (for RESISTOR BYPASS) terminal. The purple wire runs from the ignition switch through the neutral safety switch to the starter and provides 12V to the solenoid when the key is in the START position. The yellow wire runs from the solenoid to the "+" terminal on the ignition coil and bypasses the resistor wire to provide a full 12V to the points for starting the car. The tan/black wire WAS the resistor wire that ran from the RUN terminal on the ignition switch to the "+" terminal on the coil. I have no idea how you've got the car wired today, but the tan/black wire does NOT connect to the starter. I suggest you get a wiring diagram and start from scratch.

 

Here is the starter when I took it out. Where does the third wire from starter go with a HEI distrib? If I understand it originally went to neg side of coil. But with HEI disti I don’t have coil.
thoughts?

 

Sorry went to pos side of coil.

 

Look, we have no way of knowing that you don't have a factory starter unless you tell us. The info I provided was for the factory wiring with points and a factory starter. I have no idea how your aftermarket starter and distributor were wired, since the mind reading thing still isn't working. If you want useful info, you need to provide complete information about everything that is not original on the car. As for the mini-starter that doesn't have an "R" terminal, there are diode kits available for the bypass wire. Alternately, with an electronic ignition, you may not even need that wire. It sounds like whoever modified this car jacked it up. Again, I suggest you start from scratch.

 

Sorry...
the starter does have the S and R terminal. I read the other posts about mini starters with only one. I will try and find an HEI distributor wiring diagram.
Going out to work on it now.
Thanks

 

Some Denso-style mini starters have an "R" terminal, but the bypass wire in your photo appears to connect to the case, not a real terminal.

 

You are correct I checked on summit site the post to housing is ground. So I will ground the wire coming off that post on starter.
I have done easy maintenance work for years but never pulled an engine like this. It is my pandemic project and I’m learning as I go.
Thanks for your help Joe
kent

 

Bolting the starter to the block is a much better ground than that wire...

Again, that WAS the resistor bypass wire with the factory starter.

 

The HEI distributor does have a coil, it's just not a separate external part as in the points setup. The HEI coil is mounted on top of the distributor, in the center of the plug wire terminals.

 

A coil-in-cap GM HEI distributor needs exactly one wire to run. That's a 12V source that's hot with the key in both the RUN and START positions. This wire connects to the BATT terminal on the HEI cap. Done.

 

 

Yes that I have and it works

 

That tan wire in your finger is the stock resistance wire, it will not play nice with your HEI. You need cap it and run a new 12ga wire from the IGN terminal in your fuse block to connect to the HEI BAT terminal.

 

The wire in photo is yellowish down on starter connected to casing or ground. It comes up and is spliced to this grayish black wire going into main wire harness. On the wire it says resistance do not cut. Is there a wire diagram showing where this originally went? I will leave the one post on my starter with no wire since it is a ground and starter is already grounded to block. Make sense?
so question is where this grayish resistance wire coming from harness should go if I’m using ProForm HEI distributor

 

I already have wire from fuse box to HEI. It is only wire to power HEI. So just tape up resistance wire from harness? Or take to ground? Sorry I’m no electrician obviously.

 

If the wire in your hand is tied to ground, as soon as you turn the key to the on position it will turn bright red and melt your harness. There are no factory nor aftermarket wires tied to ground at the starter. The yellow wire (resistance wire bypass) runs from the starter R terminal to the coil+ terminal and is crimped to the resistance wire.
This is a simplified version of your stock wiring for a points distributor and coil.

This is what you want with an HEI

 

That helps I think I get it. Wow amazing this didn’t melt down.

I will cut splice and remove wire from starter grind terminal. I will cap or tape the resistance wire coming fro harness. Purple wire still goes to starter from ignition and red power wire to battery
Thanks

 

Its probably a good idea to replace that battery cable and put a new terminal on the purple wire since your there.

 

Keep in mind that the OP has a 1972 Delta, not an A-body. The starter wiring is the same, but there will be differences in other parts of the diagram.

 

Success it’s running and no melting wires!
Now if I can get the drive shaft and exhaust I’ll be ready to drive!

Thanks for everyone’s help!

 

Glad you got it.