Im finishing up my swap and when I turn the key ill hear the fuel pump prime up, all the lights and accessories come on but when I got to turn it over the starter won't turn on. I bought a new starter from pep boys and still nothing. I though I chased down all the grounds but is their one that directly effects the starter? I thought it just grounds itself to the block. I could really use your help on this one guys. I'm hoping it's something stupid but I just can't figure it out

 

Did you hook the two positive leads up? One is a fat wire, I think 8ga that goes to the big lug and then there's a smaller +12vdc wire that triggers the kickout solenoid, thats about an 18ga wire (i could be off on the wire gauges). If you want to test the starter itself, grab a set of jumper cables and STAYING CLEAR OF EVERYTHING ELSE disconnect the distributor coil's power and make sure the car is in park/neutral, hook one end to the battery and tap the smaller lug and it should kick out the solenoid. It's gonna spark some and probably scare you a little, but it'll let you know if the starter is working and narrow it down to a wiring issue...

 

The starter will ground through the engine, so as long as the engine is grounded, your starter should be wired with these two connections...

 

So if the siloniod kicks out then the starter is operating correctly? Because mine kicks out but doesn't turn when I jump it with the cables

 

And I actually have three big positive leads connecting to the starter. One is the normal lead and another is an orange wire and the another one is two orange wires spliced together. They are all big connectors so I know they aren't for the ignition. The previous owner had a stupid alarm system build into the car so I don't know if that has something to do with it or not but it did seem weird to me to have three connections and technically 4 wires goin to my positive bolt.

 

I was checking all the fuses just now and I noticed the ing fuse was missing. Could this e my problem? I don't remember taking it out for no reason when I started the swap but that was also 6 months ago. Here's a quick pic of the fuse panel. Its the one in the bottom left

 

In order to get it to spin and act like a starter with the jumpers, you'll need to hit both the small lug and the big lug on the starter. Try replacing the fuse and seeing if that does the trick, if not, you'll need to dive into wiring diagrams with a multimeter and try to narrow down where the problem is...

 

No
the solenoid operating correctly ( throwing out the pinion gear ) does not mean the contacts in the solenoid are passing power to the starter motor or that the starter motor itself is OK

If he has the BATT Pos hooked up to the large starter terminal , applying 12V to solenoid terminal ( purple wire ) should make starter rotate the engine assuming all of starter is working correctly

Putting 12V to the large terminal on starter body should make the starter turn ( only ) to confirm starter motor is working
If the starter turns and the solenoid clicks when tested separately then the contacts in the solenoid are not passing power to the starter motor

 

Turns out the ignition wire was lose because the part you screw the nut onto was turning inside the starter and wouldn't tighten. But now my injectors won't close..... My fuel pressure primed fine when all my injector plugs were disconnected but the second I touch a plug to the objectors the pressure drops and I can hear the fuel spray out..... I think its a ground issue but I don't know how to go about pin pointing the problem. Any ideas?

 

Obviously the wire that goes to the ECM to open ( ground) the injectors is to ground permanently so it can't be controlled by the ECM
Remove the plugs to the ECM and check injector wires with a meter; one pin should have 12V key on ,the other should be open circuit.
If not you need to identify the ground fault.
NB
If fault goes away with the ECM disconnected then ECM may be grounding inj wire fulltime

 

Well I'll have to go pick up a multimeter today but I did check it last night by unplugging the ECM and then Plugging in the injectors with the key in the on position and they did open so I'm assuming it has to be the computer right? If thy were shorting out somewhere they would have opened even with the ECM unplugged correct? And the fact that its both banks makes me think even more that it's the ECM but it just seems weird that everything the else seems to be working fine except the injectors. Is it possible for the ECM to fail in one aspect like the injectors but then work fine with everything else? Regardless I'm going to see if this guy I know has an ECM I can use just to test it. I'll let you know what the results are when I test it.

 

When I said that I tried it with the ECM unplugged and the key in the on position I meant to say the injectors did "not" open.