The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay New Wiring harness Help

Hope someone can help. bought a new wiring harness for my 46 Chevy 3/4 ton pickup from chevys of the forties, had a few problems and called them, found out they are useless in the tech dept. The harness has the main harness then the secondary one to wire up the starter to amp gauge, etc.This is what the directions read"wire with the 3/8 ring starter to amp gauge, spadewires solenoid to ignition switch, ignition switch to coil solenoid to ignition switch (s)solenoid to ignition resistor(if applicable)". Does this make any sense to anyone? the harness is the plastic replacement type,has four wires, one with the ring and the other three spade. i figure the heavy wire with the ring is the starter to amp gauge, can anyone help with the rest?also, the directions say to wire #14 power feed to horn relay, and #13 horn relay to horn.(this is the other part of the harness)Do the 46 trucks even have a horn relay? if so where? and if not, how do i wire?thanks, Phil

If this is the actual wording for installation, then those instructions are crappy. The following is how I interpret those instructions:

1. Wire with 3/8 ring...the 3/8 ring goes to the starter solenoid, same terminal that the +ve battery cable connects to. The other end goes to the ammeter (+ve).

2. Starter solenoid should go to the ignition switch (usually designated as "S" or "sol". This connection powers up the solenoid so the starter will engage.

3. If you are using points distributor, you should have a wire from the "ign" terminal of your ignition switch that goes to your ignition resistor and from there, to the +ve terminal of your ignition coil.

4. Your starter solenoid should also have an "ign" terminal. This goes directly to the +ve terminal of your ignition coil. It provides full voltage to the coil during cranking, for a more intense spark. After that, voltage supplied to the coil goes through the ignition dropping resistor.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the reply. i think i need to explain exactly what im trying to accomplish, then maybe i can make more sense of it all.My starter doesnt have a solenoid, it has a small (current reversing?) switch with three terminals. im using a hei dist from langdons stovebolt with there 12 volt coil. I know i have to run the ringed wire from the ammeter to the starter. what do i do

with these other three wires left in the harness?
hopes this is making sense Phil

I'm not aware of a GM starter without a solenoid (except maybe the 'footstomp' type). Just what kind of starter/engine do you have? Current reversing switch? Do you have a +ve ground?

It is the foot stomp type, and the switch is a "polarity reversing switch" according to the manual. has three terminals. im running a 235 chevy, negative ground

Phil - If you are using a HEI distributer you don't need to wire up the polarity reversing switch. Just bypass it. It was originally used to prolong the life of the points by reversing the polarity. You won't need this option.

That's what I did on my 46 with pertronix ignition works fine.

Good Luck
GEorge

ok, so i run a hot wire from my ammeter to the starter, i got that part. my hei dist has two wires coming out of it, a pink and a black. do i hook up the pink to the coil on the + side, and also a wire from my ignition switch? black to the - side?sorry so dum about this wiring stuff

I'm not sure what kind of an HEI you are using. When I hear HEI, I think of GM's ignition systems that have the coil built into the cap. Yours must be different if you are talking about an external coil (although I think early GM HEI units had an external coil). My HEI has two external connections...a B+ (to ignition) and a "tach" connection. You need to verify this but I'm guessing your pink wire might go to the +ve side of your coil and the black to the -ve side.