The 2 smaller wires are hooked to the I and R terminals on the solenoid, one purple (I) and the white or yellowish (R). The purple wire (I) terminal engages the starter, the other (R) terminal is an output from the starter to the coil+ terminal and is called the resistance bypass wire. If you jumper the big battery cable to the purple wire, it will crank.

 

Thanks! I am now wondering if I might have messed up some wiring. If the R terminal goes to the coil+, and through the HEI upgrade the old coil is gone, where does this now connect?

 

It is where ever you or whomever installed the HEI left it. Its usually crimped into the same terminal as the old resistance wire.

 

Is this the first HEI on the engine? Are you removing the old contact points distributor and installing an HEI for the first time as an upgrade?

 

But after the HEI install, does it have to be re-routed/connected anywhere or just either taken out entirely or sealed up and tucked away? All the install instructions say to remove or abandon the old points wiring. I just want to be sure that is right and not the cause of the problem.

 

Yes, first time. Still had points prior to this

 

I usually separate the bypass wire from the starter and crimp it with the wire feeding the HEI. Then I put heat shrink on the end of the resistance wire and tape it into the harness.

 

I see, thank you very much for that. I will make that modification and see what happens. Right now that wire isn't connected to anything and there is just a new 12 gauge wire from the fuse panel to the new distributor.

 

Ok, I am calling that progress, but not quite fixed. With the R wire hooked in with the new 12 gauge feed run from the IGN on the fuse box to the HEI it now turns over, but not as expected - it turns over as soon as the key hits the ON position rather than the one position further to actually engage the starter.

 

Because the 2 small wires at the solenoid are swapped.

 

That would be on the starter? Crap, looks like even with marking them with electrical tape months ago when I took it off still didn't work. Oh well, at least switching those two wires around is an easy fix and then all should be fixed. Thank you guys for the help, between being color blind and not very knowledgeable with electrical in general things like this are tough for me.

 

I can see where being color blind could be an issue distinguishing the wires.
On my starter/solenoid it's marked "R" & "S". I have the purple IGN wire hooked to the "S" terminal, I have the yellow RESISTANCE wire hooked to the "R" terminal.

 

I can't completely blame color blindness here. I would normally have no issue telling between yellow and purple, but both are dirty and discolored which makes it difficult. Color blindness has for sure cost me some fuses with things like car stereos over the years. A lot of those wires look the same to me, lol.

 

Sorry, yes the purple goes to the S -start terminal and the other to the R - resistance bypass terminal. Had Chevy on the brain from last month. If they weren't swapped then the S terminal is shorting to the battery wire.

 

Not a problem, I will confirm tomorrow but I am sure I just have them swapped. I will switch them tomorrow morning and see what happens.

 

Success! You guys are great. So at least now it will turn over and other than a couple of small trans leaks at two of the pan bolts that I seemed to have fixed all appears ready to go. Nervous and excited at the same time, hopefully this goes well without any major leaks or surprises, assuming it starts at all that is, lol.

 

 

To my surprise it started and ran with the base settings before even doing the timing and fuel mixture. It actually runs better than it did last year, and there are no visible leaks anywhere. I think there is a small exhaust leak somewhere around the headers, but I just have two of those flex pipes joining the exhaust system to the headers for now and went conservative on the clamps so I will snug those up and see if it goes away. I would like to get it to an exhaust shop to custom bend some proper pieces to finish off the system anyway so no big deal there.

The painted headers also smoked quite a bit for a minute or so but that seems to be done - not a great smell, lol.

It is too early to say 100% that the vacuum leak is gone, but given how it starts and runs un-tuned I think there is a good chance. Now I just have to re-educate myself on how to do the timing and the setting for this car and it should be on to the test drive and trans top-up.

 

Hi guys, one last thing that I was wondering about after the starter wiring situation - if I wanted to do a anti-theft sort of thing, could I just route the wire that now goes from the R terminal of the starter to tie in with the new 12V HEI wire first to a simple toggle switch located under the dash somewhere and then from the switch back the the HEI? Seems to me that would allow me to disable the starter so that if someone got in and smashed the column open attempting to steal the car it would at least prevent the car from being started. But, as mentioned above with me being terrible with wiring and electronics maybe there is a reason this won't work, or would be dangerous in some way.

Thanks!

 

The R terminal is the wire the supplies voltage to the distributor during start only, its the resistance bypass wire. If the starter spins the engine fast enough, the engine can start without it when the key is released. If you were to wire a toggle switch you can put one in series with the purple wire that runs to the neutral safety switch and then to the starter solenoid. These cars are very easy to hotwire even with your toggle switch.

 

Ok, good to know. The easy to steal part is what worries me with the city I live in. I have no faith that the club will do anything other than buy me about 20 seconds so I thought something more would be nice.