Okay so last weekend I got my 455 put into my '79 Cutlass. I hooked up all my wiring and turned it over just to see if the starter was getting power, etc before I did the cam break in. Everything seemed fine. Today I went to do the cam break in and my car will not turn over. I am not sure why, thought I had it all hooked up right. I have noticed now that if I take my electrical connector put it on the negative side of the battery or a ground and touch the block when the key is in the on position, the block shows power to it. I know this should be the other way around where the block is the ground. Even my engine ground on the firewall shows hot. Any ideas why? I swore all this was hooked up right, I have looked all over my car to see if something was touching and cannot find anything. I have the pink wire hooked to the starter solenoid and the HEI is wired to the battery from the BAT terminal in the cap. The base plug on the distributor is plugged into the cap. This distributor was working fine before I did the rebuild. I even pulled the distributor out of the motor (left plug wires attached to engine) and got the same result.

Any one want to weigh in on this? Like I said, the block is hot, and it should be a ground....

Thanks

Doug

 

Your ground is missing, what your reading is voltage going through your starter and looking for a ground. Clean and reconnect your grounds.

 

I once thought I was handsome... Then I sobered up.



And that would be your problem.

Pink should be the hot for the ignition circuit from the ignition switch.
Turn on ignition, Pink wire is hot, electrical potential goes through solenoid to engine block, now engine block is hot.
If engine block were grounded, current would flow, the engine wouldn't be hot, the solenoid would pull in, and the starter would spin.

Connect the purple wire to the S terminal of the starter solenoid, and the pink wire to the BAT terminal of the HEI, run he heavy negative battery cable to the engine block, and run a ground strap from the engine to the body.

- Eric

 

Got it! I had my ground wire from the battery attached to the radiator support last week and it worked, when I was installing the radiator, support, shroud, etc. I moved the battery ground and bolted it to the driver side front fender where the angled bar bolts from the front of the car. That was not grounding. I moved it back to the spot i had it last week and it turns over. Thanks for the help!

I will check the

 

Where is the big black negative cable connected? It should run from the battery to the block. There is also a ground strap from the firewall to the rear of block and the one that you connected to the radiator support.

 

As I and Eric said above, that is NOT where it needs to be connected.

It needs to go to the block.

- Eric