Ok. new olds 1968 442 owner (400 v8). Asked everyone a week ago about issues with hot starting. Landed on replacing my starter with a high temp/torque starter. so I bought one. In addition I have replaced my battery to starter cable, both red and blue (left and right) connectors on the starter (and soldered for good connection), BUT, nothing. So the new starter does not even click.
Homework I have done. 1. tested the new starter. It passed. Tested the starter outside of the car. Connected battery and blue wire (right solenoid pin). Starter turned over (outside of the car). Installed (twice with double checking the connectors) and nothing. so my guess is I have an issue with the red wire (left side connection). Is there something else I need to replace/verify/check? It is a starter. Should not be this complicated.

My second question: What is the best 1968 manual I should purchase so I can reference these questions accurately and with actual real pictures to answer my own questions. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Do you have any power in the car or is just the starter dead? Should be three wires right, one main wire, a purple wire thsts a ground and a yellowish wire that goes to the distributor

 

I have power to the rest of the vehicle. the main wire I just replaced. new wire to the positive side of the battery. right wire is blue. Runs up to the electronic ignition. Left wire, red. Goes up into the dash area somewhere. Lots of wires there. I did have to splice a small wire when I replaced my positive battery cable. But had issue prior to replacing the battery to starter wire.

 

so are you saying the left wire is a ground? pretty small wire, but possible.

 

wz1t8k, going to the starter are two wires and the positive cable. The positive cable is obvious. On one side of the starter solenoid is a yellowish wire that runs to the coil. It supplies a full 12 volts to the coil when cranking to aid in starting. The purpleish wire that is on the other side goes to a junction near the horn relay. It should be a 2 connector plugin thingy. See if you are getting a signal to the starter trigger (the purple wire) when cranking.
You did not say if it is auto or 4 speed. Could be a neutral safety switch if an auto.

Also, go to wildaboutcarsonline.com and register. All the info you could ever need is right there for free.

http://wildaboutcarsonline.com/membe...ection_12A.pdf

 

It is a 4 speed. Ok, so the left wire goes to the horn relay. I have tried to trace it there but it goes into a pack of wires and behind the brake reservoir. Could you provide a description of where the horn relay should/could be found?

Thank you for the feedback on the website.

 

The large diameter wire goes to the big lug and provides power to the starter. The other 2 terminals are labeled R or I and S. The S terminal is usually a purple wire that comes from the ignition switch, goes through a neutral safety or clutch interlock switch and then to the starter. The R terminal is a resistance wire bypass that provides full battery voltage to you coil+ post. The only reason I can think of that you have a smaller red wire is that they have been changed/ or modified.


There are no smaller wires that feed from the horn relay junction block. There are no wires that run from the starter to ground.

 

I wrote ground, as I was talking to my girlfriend at the same time, it's not a ground,oldcutlass properly explained what I was saying

 

On some models, the power feed for the whole car goes from the battery through the heavy starter wire to the starter, and then from the starter to the horn relay.

Other cars have one wire that goes to the starter, and a separate wire that goes to the horn relay.

Depends on the year.

- Eric

 

What were you thinking?!?

If other women hear about this, they'll expect their own boyfriends and husbands to talk to them, too!!

- Eric

 

Or worse yet actually listen and pay attention. Maybe I should delete his post and act like it never happened.

 

If you notice my information was only half there, I guess I should learn a lesson from this..... women and cars are only a good mix in calendars lol

 

Back in the day, I never had a calendar. But I had a nice back seat. Women and cars DID mix!
And it kept them in their place.

But, back to the story:
I know that the 67's had a double connector near the horn relay where you could jump power to the solenoid. I looked at a 68 diagram and it looked like a similar deal. I can't remember what the exact configuration was in the 68 I had. That was back in '73 and I spent more time in the back seat than under the hood. And most of the time it pertained to the 3 B's. Beers, Bongs and Babes.

 

Don't think I ever closed the loop on my starting issue eveyone was helping me with. So here is what I actually found and why it was so difficult. Someone in the cars past ran a 16 gage wire from the horn relay (battery) into the dash to a volt meter. Than back out of the dash to the starter. No wonder it was so flaky. It was hard to find because all the wires were black taped into what appeared to be a legitimate wire bundle. How did I find it? Installed the new starter and smoked the wire. Melted my oil gage feed too. But, best thing that could have happened. Now the wires go directly from the horn relay to the starter and problem solved. (and volt meter is wired correctly). Thanks to all who guided me through this quiz.