Alright, after a huge PITA, I managed to get my new starter in place. Only problem is, we're not sure where all the wires go and the starter will only spin everso lightly.

I know where the purple wire goes, but the other four wires are a mystery.
Wires:
Red
Red
Brown
Black

I've got a large stud and a small stud and I don;t know which wires are bolted to which stud. I need help, thanks in advance guys.

 

I've checked the manual and it really doesn;t give me any better details. All it does is show wire color. It doesn;t give me specific mounting locations for each.

 

It's too simple. Don't outsmart yourself.

All of the wires with big rings on the end go on the big post, no matter what color they are; and the one wire with a little ring on the end (should be purple) goes to the small post that's closer to the block, labelled "S". There should be the one big fat battery cable and at least 2 other wires with big rings that all go to the big post.

 

You know, thats what I thought too, but when I hooked it up that way, the starter will only lightly spin...The starter wheel won;t move out to the flywheel, it just barely spins. Hmm, maybe I got the purple wire wrong. I try it on a differnt post and see what happends. Thanks for the help....

 

Sounds like maybe you have the purple wire connected to the motor lead, where the "output" from the solenoid goes to the motor windings themselves to tell the starter to spin.... IIRC that would be a screw that screws into a large terminal on the solenoid, directly below the large battery terminal, through a small copper strap that comes up out of the motor housing. That wire does not belong under that screw. It belongs under a nut on a small stud, off to the side of the solenoid, 90° away from both the battery lead and the motor lead.

 

Ahh, that maybe the problem. The new starter was a little different than the old one. The solonoid was a good bit smaller. I'll try that first thing when I get home.

Also, Another question. Is it possible that a new starter may need shims when the old one didn;t on a direct replacement starter?

 

Thanks RB83L69 for all the help. I managed to get the starter working perfectly. Now, I'm just adding shims to get it right.

 

Yeah, you never know about the shims; that's one of those things you just dink with until you get it the best it can be. Usually a replacement starter will use the same shims, or lack of them, as the one that came off; but there's no guarantee.

Glad that's all it was.

 

Yeah, we had to drop the exhaust to get the starter in, but we finally managed to get it in. The new one has a smaller solenoid so it made the installation much easier. Well, I cranked the car and we saw a spark come from the flywheel. Come to find out, the starter wheel was way to close and nicked up 3-4 teeth on the flywheel. I put all three shims in that came with the starter, but it is still making too much contact with the flywheel. I’ll have to go to AutoZone and buy a few more shims.

All this is odd cause the old starter didn’t have any shims. Anyways, thanks again for the help.

 

i went through a similar deal with the starter on my 5 speed car. i swapped the starter from my z28 with automatic, thinking it would bolt right in. nope, ended up having to shim it.

 

I'm assuming since this whole starting process is metal on metal that some occasional spark between the starter and the flywheel is normal....?

 

Ok, now I'm getting a very pronounced spark coming from the copper post that comes out of the solonoid and connects to the copper strap coming from the actual starter....whats up with that?

 

Loose screw