The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay where is the starter solenoid on a foot stomp starter

Good morning! New to the forum so be kind please I am rewiring a 1950 chevy truck 3600 with a 1953 235 engine in it. I have purchased a new wiring harness from American autowire that has a wire going to the S post on the starter solenoid. The setup that ran had just the foot stomp pedal which I want to keep and had only the battery cable wired to it ( I think). How do I wire the purple wire to the starter solenoid if there is none? Thanks!!

how stock was your truck did the starter have a true solenoid or just large positive to stomp starter and red wire to battery? Basically how stock is your truck and what is your plan stay stock or modernize a little. If you could take pictures and attach or even better draw out the current wiring you have. just for the needed parts. since it had a 1953 engine we want to know what else they changed out etc.

it has been converted to 12 volt. Has a 1 wire alternator. Should have taken pictures but I am almost positive that the only cable attached to the stomp starter was the red positive from the battery. From the looks (and weight) I fell like this is the original stater. It started just fine before I started the rewire project. The stop switch does not have a post on the side. Does this help? Thank you!

krewson,
Welcome to Stovebolt. Are you staying 6v or going 12v ?

From your description, you have a 6V stomp starter switch. If going to 12V, and have a standard coil with resistor in the circuit that needs a bypass to full 12V to the coil for better starting, you may have to change out the starter switch to one that has the small terminal on the side (see pic - stolen from Jim Carter's site). That small terminal (red arrow) gets connected to the coil directly, bypassing the ignition switch and resistor. A 6V starter switch doesn't have that small terminal - otherwise identical.

Like Kevin says, a stomp starter has no solenoid. You don't connect that purple wire to anything. But look at the other small wire at the R terminal of the solenoid in your new wiring diagram. That is the one that should connect between the post on the side of your soon to be purchased 12 volt stomp starter switch and coil+.

Thanks!!! Staying 12 volt. No Coil. Has already been converted to electronic ignition. What now? You guys are awesome. Thanks!

You can probably stay with the starter switch without the extra terminal. But even electronic ignition has to have a coil.

What do you mean there's no coil?

Electronic ignition still uses a coil.

He's probably using the big cap HEI with the coil built into the cap. There will need to be one more heavy wire added- - - - -from the battery cable terminal at the starter to one side of the ammeter. That's where all the other electrical system components like lights, ignition switch, heater blower, etc. get their voltage. If the ammeter has been eliminated for some reason, a bus bar or a fuse block needs to be powered by that wire.
Jerry

Maybe he has a wire directly from the battery positive terminal to the ammeter/bus bar/fuse block.

The HEI with the built-in coil still has a coil. It's just disguised.

Oops. Sorry for my lack of knowledge. I am used to a separate coil but there is 1 wire (pink) in place on the HEI distributor and a separate connector that is empty. Still trying to figure out the purple wire that the wiring kit should go to the S terminal on the starter solenoid when there is none. Thanks to everyone!!

The empty connection on the HEI is for a tachometer signal so no real problem if it is empty.

If it all worked withthe previous harness and doesn't work now determine what is different regarding the wiring to/from the stomp starter and ammeter connections. When you are installing a new harness there can be wires that are not utilized given that the harness was probably intended for use on a multiple of configurations.

Your foot is replacing the purple wire. With a standard starter, the purple wire activates the solenoid coil that pulls the solenoid closed to activate the starter motor.

Your foot stomp starter doesn't have a mounted solenoid. The foot stomp switch sends straight battery power to the starter motor.

The ignition switch only needs accessory, off, and run. In run, the HEI will need full battery voltage using a heavy 12 gauge wire. This means the ignition switch will also need a 12 gauge wire feeding it from the battery and/or amp gauge.
The purple wire can be removed or stored away under the dash. The start circuit of the ignition switch won't be used with foot stomp start.

The picture of the stomp start switch above has the small post on the side that provides voltage to the coil when be stomped on when using a points ignition system. This bypasses the resistor wire assuring the ignition has full battery voltage when cranking. When HEI came out, the engineers designed the start system without the extra wire to the coil and resistor wires. As long as your harness provides full battery power in the run position ( no resistor wire ), yours should start and run. HEI is not happy using less than 12 volts or small feed wires.

WOW. This is such great information. Thank you to everybody!!! I will get back to work on it now. By the way, not sure that an old fart like me should be crawling underneath that dash. I am starting another thread on turn signal lighting

There's a sneaky trick for working on under-dash wiring- - - -remove the seat and prop up half a sheet of plywood over the door sill. Then the only problem is trying to stay awake while you're working!
Jerry

Another trick to more easily work under the dash is to remove the radio speaker grill. It will allow you a lot of access to the backside of the instrument clusters.

When it comes time to put it back in, used knurled nuts that you can tighten with tour fingers instead of little hex nuts.