68 SS 396 Ok, I need help bad. We pulled the transmission out so I could do some work, and it sat for about a week or so, and today we put the trans and torque converter, and flywheel back together. We also changed the starter. Now when we put all the stuff together, we have no power at all. No lights, no click, no spark, no NOTHING. We have power to the starter, but nothing to the rest of the car. There is no power to the alternator, the relay by the fender, and nothing to the fuse box. There are 4 posts on the starter, the power, ground and the R and S terminals. We have the power to the top terminal, and the ground is connected. Now we have the two wires one that runs what looks like to the relay, and I think the other looks to be running to the HEI cap. Obviously the hot and ground are correct, but what about the other two wires. We originally had one running to the R terminal, and one running to the S terminal. I think that is wrong, partly because there is no power. Could someone please help. I was so looking forward to hearing the 396 roar again, what a let down

I just checked mine .Looks like S terminal goes to the key,you can check that wire with a tester to make sure you only have power when the key is on.R goes to HEI and B is for battery.If you still have a problem let me know and I check the book

Stupid question, but even if we had the wires backwards, shouldn't we have lights, both headlights, and interior lights? I am pretty sure that we changed the wires around and have tried both sides, I appreciate the info, at least I know where the wires go for sure. What about the Horn Relay, would that cause me trouble.

Thanks
HovsSS

when you hooked the battery back up did you attach the small red wire to positive post or just the big red wire.They both have to be hooked up to have lights

I only have the one large battery cable to connect to the battery. I never had a smaller wire attached to the pos side of the battery. The previous owner did some very odd things, so it would't surprise me if something was not hooked up from the get go. What i have right now is the pos battery cable hooked to the starter, and that is the only cable I have running to the hot side of the starter. I appologize if some of this is kind of odd, but the previous owner must have been a ford lover for all the stupid stuff that he has done to this car. If you have some diagrams or photos, you can send them to drhovey@sbcglobal.net I really appreciate your help.

maybe that fourth wire you were talking about at the starter is the one that used to go to the battery.On mine there is a wire that comes from the horn relay and connects to a block behind the battery which goes to the positive battery post. Maybe a number 12 wire.Sorry I don't have a scanner to send you anything

The funny thing about this problem also, is that there is no power at the hot post on the alternator. Shouldn't there always be power running to the alternator?

HovsSS

is the wire going to the relay hooked up to the starter

if you had power before you changed the trans,It has to be something over looked or a wire not connected.What does that relay do? Is it your horn relay? if it is you need to have power to that because according to the wiring diagram power goes to the horn relay and powers up the voltage regulator or alternator

There are 4 posts on the starter, the power, ground and the R and S terminals. We have the power to the top terminal, and the ground is connected. Now we have the two wires one that runs what looks like to the relay, and I think the other looks to be running to the HEI cap. Obviously the hot and ground are correct, but what about the other two wires. We originally had one running to the R terminal, and one running to the S terminal. I think that is wrong, partly because there is no power. Could someone please help. I was so looking forward to hearing the 396 roar again, what a let downThis was how it came from the factory, a smaller wire (10g) from the pos battery post to the junction block on rad support

http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/data/500/medium/Original_Chevy_system.jpg


Since you never said you had this wire, there must be another wire for the starter BAT terminal to supply power to the rest of the car. If possible, you may want to rewire it like the factory did as there is probably added wire length which would cause greater voltage drop.

So tell me if this is correct. We tried to run a jumper wire from the pos terminal on the battery to the horn relay. When we did this we started to heat up the wire. Would that happen if it were run before the fuseable link?

"maybe that fourth wire you were talking about at the starter is the one that used to go to the battery"-quote from 67mousehunter

The wire at the starter that you call the ground may not be a ground. It could be the main power feed from the starter battery conection. Is there some sort of distribution terminal on the firewall, somthing that the previous owner added? Can you trace the alternator outjput, where does it go?

I will take a look, thanks for the suggestion

HovsSS

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