Guys/Gals,

OK, I need some help. I have a 383 Stroker, that I recently did the oil pan gasket swap while the motor was in the car (NOT FUN) and am now having a problem once I put her all back together. When I go to start her I get a grinding from the starter like the solenoid is not extending the starter gear all the way and the gear is rubbing the front of the fly wheel. Now I thought the starter might be bad, so I p/u a new one from Autozone and same thing, so I had my old starter tested and it's just fine. Maybe, an alignment issue I thought, so I get it all done, but this time do the old jump the starter with a srew driver (so I can see whats going on) and it works fine and engages on the flywheel turning the motor over (with the ignition fuse pulled ofcourse). Now, I figure I'd try it again from inside the car with everything hooked back up, and same thing. It seems that not enough juice is getting to the starter when I try and crank her from the inside? Could this be a bad gound, starter cable, does anyone have any ideas or have you seem this before? Any help is much appreciated as I am at my wits end here......

 

Come on it's only electrical connections you're dealing with here, not rocket science.

If you suspect it's a ground problem put a jumper cable directly to the case of the starter and the other end on the negative post of the battery and try to crank it over. If that helps the problem, be sure to clean and reinstall the ground strap from frame to engine, and the negative cluster on the passenger fender.

However, based on what you said about the starter working ok when you used the screwdriver, the problem you have is on the positive side. Clean the connections at the battery and the positive cluster on the passenger fender. You could also test it with the jumper cable like the negative side.

 

I'm guessing you put the wiring back just as it was?

 

Yup, I have the main pos red to the lower large terminal and the purple security wire to the smaller thread terminal on the left side of the solenoid. I also have a black wire going to the same smaller terminal and I think this is my GM alarm kill switch wire but I am not 100% on that, however could this be causing the problem?

FYI - I did check your pic on-line just to make sure, thanks for that pic btw.

 

There are only two factory wires that go the to starter. The large battery cable and the purple switch wire. The factory black/white wire goes to a ground on the side of the block below the #6 spark plug. If you have that ground on the lug with the purple wire, you are grounding out your switch lead and it will never start.

 

Thanks Rob, I'm pretty sure that this is not the main ground as that is hooked up as you stated. However, I will check again when I go work on the car again in a couple of days.

 

OK, guys I determined today that I am a complete idiot and finally figured out the problem. The problem was I accidentally hooked up the PCM ground cable to the Theft terminal on the starter along with the purple wire theft interrupt cable. Thanks to the Shoebox website I looked at some of the pics and saw the pic of the PCM ground and noticed this was the same wire I hooked up to the starter. I appreciate all of your help and man I feel dumb!!!!