Starter Wiring Help

[cycledog]

Hey guys,

At the suggestion of my son I got a starter for a 4.3L. It is about the third the size of a regular sbc starter and has more torque, as many of you may know.

Question is: On the regular solenoid as you know are two posts "S" & "R" on the v6 starter there is only one small post a large post with a wire going into the starter plus the lead connector. What post do I use for the "S" and which one is the "R"? or does it matter?

Thanks in advance for the help.

C-dog

 

[donsrods]

C-Dog, what you had in the original starter was a fat terminal in the middle to which your positive battery cable went. To the right of that one (looking dead on) was the one that goes to the S or Start position on the ignition switch. When you turn the key to start juice flows and kicks the starter solenoid to crank the engine. The remaining small terminal to the left of the fat one went to your coil + side. This terminal supplies a full 12 volts to the coil for faster starting (more juice to the coil)

Your new starter is just the same as far as the fat one, use it for only your positive battery cable. The small terminal will go to the S or start terminal on the ignition switch. This starter does not supply 12 volts to the coil as it was set up differently at the coil. So just eliminate that wire that originally went to the coil from the starter and hook up the other two.

I just looked at your pictures again, and see you already have the battery cable hooked in the correct place. Now just hook up the S or start wire to the remaining small terminal and it will crank when you turn the key.

Don

BTW, are you sure your tooth count on the two starters are the same?

 

[cycledog]

Don,
Thats what I was thinking, but what source would you use to get juice to the coil?

 

[donsrods]

I think the Chevys that use that starter draw the juice from a strange source......the alternator. I know the boats that we worked on had a separate terminal on the alternator that only put out 12 volts when you were cranking it. Do you have a step down resistor in the I line that goes from the Ignition hot terminal on the switch to your coil? If so, that drops it down to 4-7 volts, enough to run the car, but sometimes not enough to crank it, especially if you live where it is cold.

I tried running a wire from the S position on my ignition switch to the + side of the coil, in addition to the normal wire that runs from the I terminal, through a resistor, then to the coil. When I started the car the resistor started smoking! So I just run the 4-7 volts all the time now, cranking or not, and it starts fine.

You might be able to get a Chevy wiring diagram for the starter you are using and see where they get 12 volts from, or if they do it at all.

Don

 

[cycledog]

Thanks for the tips. Right now I am just trying to see if the engine runs. I have had it for a couple of years and have yet to try and start it.

I did a compression test the way it sits and its got ok compression. The valley was very clean when I changed manifolds and the heads the same way when I took off the valve covers.

I just wanted to see how it runs before I go to all the trouble of putting the body on. Much easier to take it out just dealing with the frame.

Thanks again for the help.
Steve