1970 BB Starter Wiring?

[z-28John]

Hello all,

Due to an unfortunate series of events (including the death of my best-friend of 37 years), my 1970 Monte Carlo sat in a field for an extended amount of time (years) and has deteriorated badly.

 

One of the issues that needs to be rectified immediately is the wiring that USED to go to the starter. Apparently a mouse (rat or squirrel?) ate this and some other wiring, in several places, under the hood. I have a part of the harness that I believe went to the starter, including the "black-wrapped" harness behind the distributor, but unfortunately, it only has two black wires (that are only a few inches long- outside the wrapping) and the remnants of an orange, a purple (violet?) and maybe a pink or brown wire... I think that most of these go to the starter, right?

 

I bought a Haynes Manual, but it doesn't tell anything about the solenoid wiring, other than to mark them when you remove them- which is already done (only eyelets remaining).

Can anyone tell me where to find a diagram (sorry but not a B&W Technical one- I get confused by them) that will help me figure out where these five wires are supposed to go?

Or maybe there is a photo of a correctly wired starter available?

 

I appreciate any and all help, as I have finally gotten my car back to my house and want desperately to hear it run again.

 

Thanks

John

 

[MCfan]

Hey, John, I feel your pain - a packrat chewed up most of the wiring on my tractor at the ranch one winter - fortunately the ignition still worked.  Not sure what your problem is with a B&W wiring diagram - they convey a ton of useful information, including the gauge and color of every wire.   I can send you all the pages of a 1970 Monte Carlo wiring diagram manual via email if you want, but you probably only need the engine compartment page and possibly the instrument panel pages which I have attached as thumbnails below.  Just look at the lower right quadrant of the engine compartment page (first page below) and you will see the engine, distributor, starter and battery with all of the wire connections clearly marked.  The number on each wire line is the gauge (thickness) of the wire followed by a letter code for the color of the wire (R=red, W=white, Y=yellow, OR=orange, PPL=purple, DBL= dark blue, etc.) so find the color of wire in question and trace it carefully from one unit to the next.  Replace cut or missing wires with the same gauge or larger (smaller number) even if the color is not the same.

 

You are correct that a wiring diagram will not show you how the wires are bundled together or the actual routing in your engine compartment, but if you make reasonable connections along safe routes it will get you running again.  Good luck.

 

[z-28John]

Thanks Dennis!

I was actually able to make sense out of the starter wiring in diagram!

Can I ask you for one more favor? If you would look under your hood, there are about five wires that run together, with the purple and yellow starter wires among them, at the passenger-side back of the engine. Could you take a look and tell me where the two black wires and maybe a pink (maybe brown?) wires in that group go to? I assume that they are important, but have no idea how to get that info from a diagram!

Thanks in advance for any input!

John

[MCfan]

John, sorry to be slow in replying.  I was traveling from my summer home in MN to our winter home in FL yesterday.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to positively identify the wire bundle you are trying to figure out.  A day earlier and I could have looked at my bone-stock '70 SS in MN and probably found it but my '70 402 here in FL has undergone lots of modification in the engine compartment so I can't tell for sure.  Some of the non-stock wires are different colors and have been loomed up in flexible casings.  

 

That said, the wiring diagram shows two dark wires (dark blue and dark green) plus a pink wire that go directly to the TCS relay which is mounted to the passenger side firewall fairly close to the distributor.  I suspect that is what you are looking at.   If it is, there is a very good chance that your TCS system is inoperable and possibly completely removed from your engine compartment.  It was originally designed and installed by the factory to keep the vacuum advance from advancing the timing of the distributor unless the transmission was in high gear and the engine was up to normal operating temperature.  It was easy to eliminate its effect by simply routing the vacuum line from the distributor directly to the carburetor, bypassing the TCS solenoid.  Many of the TCS components have been stripped off our cars or simply rendered inoperable with the bypass technique. If your TCS system is still intact, see if there are any colored wire stubs coming out of the TCS relay mounted to the back of the firewall.  If the relay is missing, I suggest you simply tape off those wires where they come out of the bundle and/or relay so they don't short out on something in the engine compartment.

 

Here's a LINK to a photo showing the TCS Relay on the firewall.  Its the small black box just behind where the two red distributor wires bend downward after leaving the HEI distributor.

 

 Hopefully, someone with a stock BB Monte will be able to confirm where those wires actually go.

[z-28John]

Thanks again, Dennis!

Once again, I was a day late and a dollar short!

I googled and found a LOT of info on the TCS system, now that I know what it's called (thank you)! It appears that most people don't use it, but cap or reroute the vacuum lines, which I will prob do too.

I am on a steep learning curve here, as I owned a '71 350 Monte as my first car, but that was 35 years ago, and it was a small-block. I sincerely appreciate any help I can get, and want let you know that!

BTW- How do I get a FLORIDA home to spend the winters in???

John