okay guys, every time I have a question i get the answers here. Hopefully i can get them again. I have a 69 olds cutlass and found out the engine is a 77-80 olds. Whoever I bought it from cobbed the crap out of the engine and wires are a mess. I have put headers on it and am trying to reconnect the starter but no power is getting to the car. Not sure if i am connecting it right. I have the postive battery cable wire I know where that goes, but in the jumbled bundle that was hanging next to the starter there were 2 loose large red wires (no connectors on the ends) and one small red wire (no connector of course). I have no idea where these go n tohe starter. I know ive seen a a lot of talk about there being a purple wire that goes to the starter but theres no purple wire..HELP!

 

Quite possibly someone had replaced the wires or a portion there of. Get a meter and check which wire/s are hot when the key is moved to the start position. That would be the equivalent of your purple wire and goes to the "S" terminal on the starter. The other is probably the replaced yellow, which will run from the "R"/I terminal to the coil +. That would be your resistor bypass circuit and supplies power from the starter to the ignition when the starter is engaged.

 

Ok so I may be stupid but which is the I terminal and which is the R. I see the bigger bolt/post that I am assuming the positve cable goes to and 2 smaller posts on each side of that....

 

There will be letter next to the smaller terminals and I think they will actually be marked as S and R. Follow as Eric said on testing your wires.

 

They are marked, I edited my original post the terminals can be marked a couple of ways.


2006-08-06_205557_ja2.jpg

 

Here's a Delco Remy solenoid with the R and S and they are on opposite sides of Eric's photo. Just look carefully at the solenoid on your starter as there can be differences.

 

Thanks again guys