Author Topic: 74 Starter/Electrical Hookup  (Read 4168 times)

Pastrbob1aolcom

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74 Starter/Electrical Hookup
« on: January 07, 2002, 10:16:00 PM »
I am putting a rebuilt 383 in my 74. I have replaced the old wiring harness to the starter. I am using a new gear reduction starter and have it hooked up so that it energizes properly. It only has one small terminal whereas my old starter had two small terminals.
My problem is that I have an extra wire in the harness that I can't figure out. The battery lead and the power lead are on the large terminal and the solenoid lead is on the small terminal.  My schematics of the system aren't any help to try to identify the extra wire. Is the fourth lead the extra solenoid lead and therefore it is not needed with this new starter? Any electrical experts out there who can help?
Thanks ,
Bob


84 silverado

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starter shtuff...
« Reply #1 on: January 08, 2002, 09:20:00 PM »
The starter you took off of your truck had an early solenoid on it that had an extra terminal marked "R" that put 12 volts to the coil during startup. Normally the coil runs at 7 volts to keep from burning up the coil. The electrical system had a resistive wire in it that went to the coil that supplied the correct voltage when the ignition switch was in the run position. With an HEI that connection isn't used since it needs a full 12 volts to operate properly. The new starter you have doesn't have that because very few applications need that extra post. Your truck came with an HEI so it gets voltage through an extra wire on the main battery cable at the starter.