Topic: New starter , starter solenoid , power cable to starter = nothing :(

[78&89TA]

The starter solenoid makes a clicking noise but the new Powermaster starter from Year One does nothing ?  I even put my old starter back in which did kinda work before taking it out and now nothing happens with it ?? The battery is showing good volts plus I have it on a charger when trying to start car ??  Any ideas ?? Why is it you replace a part and it opens up a can of worms

[78&89TA]

I got the starter problem fixed  and got my turn signals fixed on the '78 and fixed my headlights on my '89 to work again , it was a good week working on cars

[Corellian Corvette]

What was the problem?

[78&89TA]

when i got the car it had a starter solenoid attached to the inner fenderwell and i want to remove it but someday said if i go back to a stock setup that coming off the battery postive side should be another smaller wire going to something to give power to gauges ect..  ??  is that true ?

[kc79ta]

I think the wire they are talking about...power for your lights, ignition and rest of the car. That power comes off a pigtail from the alternator. It is a red 10ga. wire that splits into 2 red 12ga wires. One red is for your lights, and the other red is for your ignition, radio, power locks ect..

I think the Olds 403 had a little different harness where it pulled cabin power off the main starter cable rather then the alternator.

[78&89TA]

Here is a picture of the mess that was coming from the back of the alternator , someone did some patch work

[78&89TA]

the red wire with the blue connector is not connected to the other wires on top of it , one of the dirty orange colored wires (to the right in pic)  is cut but doesn't go to anything ?

[brian c]

YIKES!!!!!

Seeing that, I recommend you purchase a new engine harness from M&H Wiring Harnesses. That has disaster written all over it. And since you'll be in the exact same spot anyways, pickup a new forward light harness for your car. The engine harness and forward light harness connect together and then bolt to your fuseblock (under the brake booster). Total time to swap - probably an hour at most.

IF you absolutely need to use your harness, please wrap those connections up in some heat shrink tape so you don't have a short (ie. electrical fire).

[78&89TA]

Thanks , I'll look into it and I hope it's as easy as it sounds. Does that include the AC wiring cause if it does I'm wondering if I should get the same harness even though I plan on removing the AC ??

[brian c]

AC wiring harness is separate from the forward light and engine harnesses. So you're not losing any $$ when you replace just those two.

[78&89TA]

Ok cool , I sent them a request for a catalog so I at least got the ball rolling on fixing this mess

[78&89TA]

YIKES!!!!!

Seeing that, I recommend you purchase a new engine harness from M&H Wiring Harnesses. That has disaster written all over it. And since you'll be in the exact same spot anyways, pickup a new forward light harness for your car. The engine harness and forward light harness connect together and then bolt to your fuseblock (under the brake booster). Total time to swap - probably an hour at most.

IF you absolutely need to use your harness, please wrap those connections up in some heat shrink tape so you don't have a short (ie. electrical fire).

...... Well I got the harness in the mail , the other day , just got the engine harness for now but i did pick up a underdash harness for 20 bucks and looks real nice , not sure if i can use it or not ??  does it matter if the 78 trans am it was pulled from had different opts ??

[brian c]

You may run into issues with the blower harness if your car had AC and the donor doesn't (or vice versa). Can't hurt to try it for $20. Just look it over really carefully as 30+ year old wiring is bound to have faults. Either cracking insulation or broken wires. Break out the multimeter and test for continuity through all circuits before you install it.

[78&89TA]

Thanks , even for 20 it's a good reference tool , im guessing I'm going to run into problems with the new engine harness as nothing with this car goes as planned , I hope to install soon and get this car started again.

[78&89TA]

I put this in temporary for the pic but does anyone know what this greenish wire with clip plugs into ? , I don't see anything like this on the old wiring