The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Correct wiring at solenoid - hot wiring harness?

Hi All,

I hope you can help me decide if I'm chasing my tail with something. I just finished rewiring my '64 C20 with reproduction harnesses being careful to hook things back up how I found them. After starting the truck last night for the first time and idling a few minutes I thought I would feel all the wiring under the hood to see if anything seemed too hot...well I found the engine harness to the solenoid/starter was very hot! Is this normal...I've heard of "heat soak" with GM starters...is this what they are referring to?

Or, do I have something hooked up wrong at the solenoid? The shop manual shows a wire(+ from battery) to main post "B", then pink and yellow to the "R" post, and finally purple to the "S" post.
I have a extra black wire (ground?) coming from the harness but the shop manual does not refer to where this should connect? This same black wire was on my original harness and was attached to the Main + post on the solenoid.

Thanks in advance!

It probably has a resistance wire in the harness for the coil. If there is no ceramic resister on the fire wall hooked to the coil then this is the case. It will get warm.
The wire from the bat to the large post on the sel. should be a heavy gauge wire. 10 or 12 gauge. Ground wires are usually black. If it was hooked to the pos. of the bat. it may have been added in.

Thanks, you got it exactly right! Before I read your reply I had called M&H auto wire who manufactures this harness and they also said that the braided wire is a resistance wire that takes the battery volts from 12 something down to 9.5 volts for the distributor...so it will get warm to very warm.

They also verified the extra black wire is for trucks with guages...this particular wire is for the amp meter and it should also be connected to the main post along with the positive wire coming from the battery.