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To me it looks like both the R & S terminals are there but the start circuit purple wire usually going to the S terminal is connected to the R terminal.
If it were a single terminal solenoid the S terminal would have been on the opposite side and the R terminal omitted.
Something sure screwy there alright.
Thinking as a clock:
6 o clock position gets the mounting hardware, no wires.
9 o clock is used for old points / condenser system.
Noon gets the big red cable plus a smaller wire.
And 3 o clock (which is missing in O.Ps) gets the other small wire, I believe.
I wonder if someone installed the solenoid cap up-side-down?
Or, its the incorrect unit?
Listen to bmotojoe. He helped me a lot. He has 12 V running through his veins.
Definitely nothing is going in until I find and fix this first I've been ordering and replacing everything but the blocki have a basement full of parts right now lol
2025 c3 ('74-'82) of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
2019 C3 of Year Finalist (appearance mods)
Originally Posted by HeadsU.P.
Something sure screwy there alright.
Thinking as a clock:
6 o clock position gets the mounting hardware, no wires.
9 o clock is used for old points / condenser system.
Noon gets the big red cable plus a smaller wire.
And 3 o clock (which is missing in O.Ps) gets the other small wire, I believe.
I wonder if someone installed the solenoid cap up-side-down?
Or, its the incorrect unit? Or is the cap or the solenoid installed upside down, is that even possible?
Listen to bmotojoe. He helped me a lot. He has 12 V running through his veins.
Do you have a separate 'coil' next to the distributor?
You don't have to unwrap all the wires, check for continuity on the loose wire at the starter to the + (positive) terminal on the coil.
Look at the schematic to see the (yellow) wire from the starter to the coil,
When you turn the KEY to START it sends power to the solenoid (S terminal) and simoustanly to the (R) terminal and when you turn the key to RUN the power stops flowing to those terminals.
The yellow wire from the R terminal on the solenoid to the coil is shown here.
How your starter was wired from the factory.
Last edited by Peterbuilt; Mar 19, 2022 at 01:18 PM.
if the starter starts the car and you have a non-points ignition, don't be throwing a starter at it. the car is gonna go "buy me this. buy me that." and what you buy her ahead of time won't be what she wants. so she will just tell you to buy her something else. you also don't have to drive it tomorrow. pull the part. see what it needs. then start looking for it. if you are replacing the starter anyway, not with another full size gm starter. there are 2 different types of permanent magnet gear reduction starters that are superior and weigh much less when you are holding them over your head trying to thread bolts in.
I was just under it inspecting the hook ops the unconnected red is actually a yellow the main power bolt was lose and was moving around by touching it I tightened it back down the sleeve on the ground to the bell housing has started to fall away I'm rewraping it
While the battery was charging I replaced the alternator plugged the battery in at what the charger said 88%car started right up on a cold start the wire has no voltage so I believe it was bypassed but after letting it idle for 20 minutes I shut it down went to start it again and it acted like it had a dead battery pulled the battery charger says 100% so I'm thinking the starter is on its way out the door ?
You might want to make sure that the starter to frame ground wire is clean and tight.
Also check the battery ground under the driver's seat.
Excellent post! I had an intermittent issue in my 80. I jacked up the car and cleaned the negative battery connection, then found the issue in the battery connector itself.
