I have an older 1984 class A Revcon with a 454 power plant with HEI ignition system. I replaced the water pump and along the way decided to upgrade the low amp altenator (64-72) with a higher amp guy (94-100). I also replaced a rusty old Solenoid mounted just under the hood, the positive side cable going straight to the positive terminal on the brand new, fully charged battery. New parts in place and now I can't get the key switch to throw juice at the solenoid to crank the engine. No head lights, and nothing at the dash panel, stone dead. I put a jumper wire from the positive side of the solenoid to the opposite side going to starter side. with the jumper in place I got power to the dash and the headlights worked and when I hit the key the solenoid click. There is a black wire that appears to be a ground wire at the solenoid but I can't firgure where it goes. I remember it being attached to the small "I" post but it has a large opening connector? There is a purple wire going to the small "S" and that seems to be connected to the Key switch, then there is a second purple wire with a large connector going to the battery cable post opposite the Positive post connection and it goes to the starter, it is the starter wire. When I jump from the hot side to the starter side the starter cranks and turns the eingine no problem. I have to remove the starter wire from the large post in order to jumper from the hot side so as to keep the starter from cranking, then I can switch the key to start position and the solenoid clicks.
The black wire placement has me baffled, does it really belong to the "I" post? Also, is it possible the new altenator could be the problem? Everything had been working fine before replacing the altenator and the solenoid. When I first attempted to start the engine after the new parts there was nothing, no clicking, no buzzing, nothing, just dead silence. I called the parts counter guy and he says the altenator shouldn't have anything to do with getting power to the key swtich or the dash? Has anyone ever run this same problem? Help if you can, Dan
The black wire placement has me baffled, does it really belong to the "I" post? Also, is it possible the new altenator could be the problem? Everything had been working fine before replacing the altenator and the solenoid. When I first attempted to start the engine after the new parts there was nothing, no clicking, no buzzing, nothing, just dead silence. I called the parts counter guy and he says the altenator shouldn't have anything to do with getting power to the key swtich or the dash? Has anyone ever run this same problem? Help if you can, Dan