I am trying to help a friend with his LT1 swap into a 1966 Skylark. I wired up his starter for him like this:


The big terminal on the starter gets battery positive and batt terminal on key gets battery positive.
The yellow wire goes from the back of the key to the S terminal on the starter only gets power when the key is turned to crank. There is no power on the yellow wire in any other key position.

We tried it like this and the starter would just click and not rotate. After trying the starter about 20 times and smacking it with a hammer it finally started turning the engine but when I let off the key the starter would not disengage.

We tried it a few more times and each time it would not disengage.
Is there anything wrong with the wiring?
Could a bad starter cause this?

 

solenoid could be bad, i believe that is what engages and disengages the gear, hitting it probably caused it to unstick though so the gear could just be sticken if you have another one around or can get a hold of one real cheap or so i'd try that

 

Sounds like a sticking solenoid.

 

Sticking solenoid was the cause. We got a new starter and it now works fine.
Thanks.