73-77 A-body TECH Includes 73GTO, LeMans, Grand Am, Can Am

          
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Old 03-13-2021, 11:17 PM
Arocket Arocket is offline
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Default Need some wiring help after a 15 year lay off!! 76' Lemans 350 CID Pontiac TH 350

"Ever take something apart and think to yourself,....I don't need to write any thing down I can remember where everything goes?" (15 years ago we didnt have cell phones with cameras so that was not an option!)

And then life happens and 15 years later its time to put things together and you just cant seem to remember where everything goes!

I have a few questions.

We have replaced the 350 with a built 455 out of a 76 GP.
We decided to upgrade the pully system and decided to go with a 140 AMP CVF one wire alternator. Question 1,..... what do you do with the plug in 2 wire lead that normally plugs into the old stock Delco unit, and I would guess that the original lead that you bolted on the stud coming out of the alternator would be the one that I now connect to the one terminal CVF alternator?
The CVF alternator has a wiring diagram with it, should I abandon the wiring in the original harness and just go with their design?

Question # 2 We have replaced the original starter and solenoid with a new gear reduction high torque starter. The new starter has a large lead for the battery cable and only one other small terminal. So looking at my wiring harness it appears that I only have one lead that goes to the starter with a small sta-con connector. I would guess that this would go to the small terminal on the starter, the other cable is the battery cable which obviously with the large sta-con connector connects to the large terminal on the starter.
So in this instance how does the wiring harness get power? It seems like I am missing a lead somewhere? Did the 76' Pontiac engined cars have any additional leads that should be connected at the starter?

We do not have the original battery cable so I do not know if the cable had a lead on it and then that lead sent power to the harness? I dont know.

I would appreciate any help that other A-Body enthusiast might offer on this subject.

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Old 03-17-2021, 10:34 PM
cdrookie cdrookie is offline
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Go with CVF's diagram. they made it so they know how it works.

You can wire the starter to the battery and the small terminal to the small solenoid post. If it's not getting juice it won't do squat. I run a wire from the alternator to the starter. It might not be the correct way, but I've done it on a few of my cars over the years and none of them have burnt to the ground yet.

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Old 03-18-2021, 08:26 AM
Arocket Arocket is offline
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Thank you for your reply. Things burning to the ground are not good especially when its your classic Pontiac!

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Old 03-18-2021, 10:18 PM
cdrookie cdrookie is offline
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There's been plenty of times it burning to the ground seemed like a good solution

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Old 03-19-2021, 08:50 AM
Arocket Arocket is offline
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That is VERY true!!

On a more serious note, I mentioned that we had disassembled the car and the front clip is still off of the car. (If I knew how to post a video on this forum I would) I was working on my 64 Catalina yesterday and the the thought hit me that maybe I am missing a connection block that may have been mounted on the inner fender well or something. I am missing the power source to my wiring harness, we re-wrapped the harness as it was and there is not a lead that you connect to the battery or starter so while working on the Catalina I noticed that on this car the battery cable runs from the battery to the block and then to the starter, additionally there is a large gauge(maybe # 10) that also leaves that block and feeds the wiring harness. Do the 76' A-bodys with the Pontiac engine utilize this type of block? We stripped the inner fender wells 15 years ago and had them prepped for paint so it is possible that I have put that block in a box and have overlooked it! Any thoughts on this?

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Old 03-21-2021, 10:30 AM
cdrookie cdrookie is offline
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I don't know about the 76's. There's a ton of knowledge on the Facebook groups if you're on that. I also suggest one of the factory service manuals that you can sometimes find on eBay. All the info is in there.

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Old 03-22-2021, 08:32 AM
Arocket Arocket is offline
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cdrookie,

I think that we have it sorted out, we located the wiring diagram and it showed a secondary cable coming off of the battery cable so we searched in the parts box and there it was! The original battery cable has an extended cable that runs directly to the alternator where it then connects with another cable and then supplies power to the fuse block!

I do have an additional question that I have posed to the moderators but have not seen a reply? How do you or can you post a video on this forum?

Let me know if this is possible.

Thanks again for your help.

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Old 03-22-2021, 09:11 AM
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johnta1 johnta1 is offline
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Quote:
How do you or can you post a video on this forum?

No videos allowed.
Put on youtube and post a link.
(or if you have a website post it there and link to it here)



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Old 03-23-2021, 09:49 PM
Arocket Arocket is offline
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As Inspector Clouseau would say,......the problem is solvved!!

Thanks for your help, We downloaded the pages and pages of wiring diagrams and details , got past the faded wiring and got the 76' A-Rocket project up and running "through" the ignition switch!

I am struggling to post a video however I will get that situation resolved! Lets just say people would pay to have the idle that this machine has!!

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Old 03-23-2021, 09:51 PM
cdrookie cdrookie is offline
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Awesome! Wiring problems are the worst.

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