1980ZZ4

I pulled my engine from my 1981 Corvette a couple years ago and replaced it with a ZZ4 I had from another car. When I pulled it, I disconnected the wiring harness and let it go with that engine. I have since purchased a new harness and am ready to hook it up. Does anyone have a simple explanation or schematic of how to connect it to the starter?

Thanks.

Brad

cardo0

Dang I can see your difficulty, just trying to use my Chiltons manual ($15) elec diagrams leaves me hanging. It has 1979 then 1981 but not 1980 wiring.

For both 1979 and 1981 the red (both large and small) wires go to the large stud on the top location of solenoid - these are the batt "hot" wires.

Both years have the purple wire (from the stater switch) that goes to the small "S" terminal stud on the solenoid.

The 1979 has a black wire (which is ground) and that goes to the starter body or solenoid case mounting screw.
The 1981 does not have a black wire for case grounding.


FYI the "R" post is not used for any of those later years (but remained on the production starter solenoid). It was the "Primary ignition resistance bypass" and had a yellow wire connected to it (like on my '74).


Hope this works for ya.

BTW the ZZ4 conversion is a cool idea and most everyone is happy with that in their C3.

duramaxsky

The large batt cable and the main feed for the power (small red wire) go to the large term. The start wire is for the s term. The thin red wire is the feed from the batt to the car. Although the cars by that age had more than 1 power feed. They have one from the batt term as well. A replacement harness may have a resistor bypass wire. You don't need that with HEI so just tape it off.

1980ZZ4

This is what I have...a two post starter (both posts are the same size), and one male connector...




And this wiring harness...




FYI, the purple wire has a very small eyelet on it. It won't fit any of the terminals on the starter.

Help me put the puzzle together now. thx

cardo0

What harness is that? Is that a "stock" OEM replacement?

Well i can see the red wires are together on 1 ring lug - which is good and what u want. That ring lug goes to the top large terminal stud.

I see the black wires are together also and will fasten to any screw on the case or even under the head of 1 of the larger starter bolts when u put the starter in. The solenoid case screws on that starter are on the opposite side of the solenoid terminal studs but u could use those to.

Now the purple wire has to go on 1 of the "blade" style lug terminals. It must go on the one labeled "S" as i think i see 2 blade lug terminals (1 each side). I would expect the blade lug terminal with the hole in it on the far side in the pix would be correct term to use but u need to look real close to find the "S" cast in the plastic near the correct terminal. Or u may have to look in the instructions for the "S" lug terminal. U will have to cut the lug off the purple wire if not a blade lug - cant see any lug on that wire in the pix - and put a female blade lug on the wire to connect to the blade term on the solenoid.

That blue and black wired connector is not even on the '79 diagram. But on the '81 diagram it shows its connected to the auxiliary radiator fan. Does your 1980 have and aux fan? Then thats were it goes.

Hope this helps and good luck.

1980ZZ4

Thanks Cardo for your response. The harness is the stock harness. (new) It makes sense that the blue/black wire would go to the radiator fan...yep there used to be one. My confusion is primarily because there is only one blade terminal. It would have been nice if General Motors would have identified the studs/lugs with an S or other good identifying marks. I guess we need to know this prior to hooking anything up. I'll contact Chevrolet tomorrow and get that information. What you supplied should work perfectly then. Thanks!