I didn't notice while taking the starter off, but there is an "S" and I believe an "R". Which does the little wire connect to? Thanks!

 

S terminal gets the wire from the ignition(purple usually)

 

Cool thanks. What's S and R mean?

All the wires are black with grunge LOL. GooGone cleans them up good though.

 

S is for "start"

R(sometimes I) , well, not sure on R, but I is for ignition(points cars used this to bypass the ignition resistor on crank(oil filled coils don't last long with full 12-14v to them, so the resistor dropped feed voltage will running to ~10v, but they still needed 12+v to start the engine)

 

Beautiful thanks!

Another question:

There are 2 wires that T-off the wiring harness behind the engine, and they drop down behind the engine in a metal tube. One is a thicker wire with a large-ish ring terminal, and there is a pair of smaller wires that terminate togother in a shared smaller ring terminal.

I already have the large starter wire coming from the battery located. Do both of these go to the starter? One to the large lug, and the other to the small terminal "S" for Solenoid? Or is there another single wire somewhere that goes to "S"?

Thanks!

 

sounds like all that is correct, though I am not sure about the 2 wires going to the small ring terminal.........maybe the wire was repaired, and they didn't have the proper size wire(12-10 gauge), and used a pair of smaller wires(18-14 gauge)?


what kind of car?

 

It's an '85 El Camino. The ring terminal "looks" factory.

So there are 2 wires that go onto the large starter post?

 

yes, 2 wires(main batt wire, and a fuse link wire), that is where some, if not all, of the power to the rest of the car comes from

 

OK sounds good, I'll hook them up and hope nothing blows up.

 

Except for the wire from the ignition switch that actually engerzies the starter (agreed- it's usually purple in color) pretty much everything else goes to the same big terminal on the starter as the main battery wire. I'm talking about cars from the modern era here- late 70s or newer.

They use several wires (often with fusible links mounted in-line) to draw power for various other electrical needs in the car. The main post on the starter is just a convenient place for them to draw power from. Yes, they go through the same metal tube down by the starter as the purple starter wire does (the tube is a heat shield).