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Hello everyone it's been a minute since last time I was here .
I'm Sal from CT , I own a 76 and 12 . my c3 has been sitting for about 4 years and I really would like to get it going , my son will retire from 20 years in the Coast Guard in two years andI will like to somewhat restore and gift it to him , so have two years finish
Im stuck on this and can't do anything till i figure this out .
I tryed charging the battery but the smart charger goes into short mode soon as the light switch is pulled on or when ignition key is turned to second click .
I disconected just about every thing no luck . than I disconected the starter and short went away , the main wire to starter connected shown no short . I up loaded a picture and labeled wires
B and C were connected to main terminal. A was on S terminal and D to ground , when B and C get connected thats when it shorts out .
can someone help figure this out please . looks like someone spliced the wires the white looks like goes to a brown or purple maybe the two reds loos like one is black past the plastic and the whit spliced to a black .
not sure if they were connected rite or where the short is .
First off, how many terminals does your starter solenoid have? Looking at the pic above, a '78 shouldn't have the left small R terminal - once HEI ignitions came on board, the R terminal was no longer needed.
The double wires with the ring terminal go to the large center bolt on the solenoid along with the heavy positive battery cable.
I believe wire A is a ground wire that connects to the outer starter bolt - it should also have a large ring terminal.
The D wire (white to purple) should be connected to the S terminal on the solenoid.
Last edited by barkingrats; Oct 1, 2025 at 10:15 PM.
It has R & S . the double wire (b &c) going to the the power terminal is making it short out when i turn head light or ignition switch on .
why is one of my double wire black past the plastic . also noticed gauges fuse on fusebox is blown .
The good thing is your not smoking any fusible links...
Save a copy of the drawing to your computer, that way you can enlarge the drawing...
This 1976 drawing is split into 2 sections, the cabin side & rear (Top) and the engine side & optional items (Bottom)
On the drawing I provided between the firewall side bulkhead connector you will see 2 single connectors one labeled 2B & 2D
These 2 connectors are plugged together and complete the Charge Circuit.
Unplugging those and testing will isolate all of the engine side harness and the BAT-2 or non switched side of the ignition switch...
I suspect the cabin side is where your fault is but lets start there...
If you follow BAT-3 (Or Circuit 2D) at the ignition switch that lands at the horn relay...
I up loaded a picture and labeled wires
B and C were connected to main terminal. A was on S terminal and D to ground , when B and C get connected thats when it shorts out .
can someone help figure this out please . looks like someone spliced the wires the white looks like goes to a brown or purple maybe the two reds loos like one is black past the plastic and the whit spliced to a black .
not sure if they were connected rite or where the short is .
Originally Posted by vastiano5428
why is one of my double wire black past the plastic
So you've got me confused. You mentioned the white wire in your pic (wire D) connects to purple or brown. Then you say it's spliced to black. If it's indeed purple, then that goes to the small S terminal on the solenoid. I think at least part of the problem is that you're treating the purple Switch wire as a ground, which it is not. Wire A is your ground to the starter bolt.
The double-joined wires have to go to the large lug, and if you look at the wire colors in the diagram bmotojoe posted, you'll see the left-hand wire is connected to black further into the harness.
2025 c3 ('74-'82) of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
2019 C3 of Year Finalist (appearance mods)
You have too many splices to determine the true color.
How about if you connect a test light to one wire at a time and turn the key to start to figure out which wire gets power and connects to the "S" terminal.
no sorry the white connects to black that was grounded on bell housing A - connects to purple wich was on s terminal .
still having no luck , the cabin has no power anywhere either dash , light, radio , nothing .
i stopped working on it , hopefully i can work on it today .
pretty sure the purple is , but ill try it . i dont think the problem is on purple its the two hot wires fused together , when i connect those to hot it shows ground
starter wires mess
