??? Electrically Challenged ??? Starter Question

Doesn't matter how much I play with cars some things just don't sink in. The dark art of electricity would be the main one.

I have my hot rod in bits at the moment. I destroyed a couple of starters in my nailhead and I think it was my aftermarket flywheel that was the culprit.

I have fitted a new flywheel and I have a Roadrunner Hi Torque starter (New Zealand) on which I just replaced the pinion after chewing it to pieces. I have looked at how the gears engage and I think it all looks good but before bolting up the bellhousing I wanted to crank the motor over so I can actually make sure the starter is engaging and disengaging properly.

I got a charged battery and a starter cable from another starter I had, made up an earth wire and connected them to the battery. No dice. Guessing about what could be wrong I earthed the engine to the battery. Still nothing. There are only the two terminals on the starter. What am I missing here?

I'll again draw your attention to my first sentence.

Thanks

Pete

 

Starter grounds to engine block. No need for ground/earth wire to starter. Heavy/large terminal is direct to battery, small terminal is to start switch-battery positive through switch.
If you are chewing up bendix gears, the flywheel is damaged or not true/round.

 

You need a big fat battery cable from the negative battery terminal, to the engine block.

You need another big fat battery cable from the positive battery terminal to the big screw lug on the starter.

You need a (switched) small wire from the positive battery terminal to the small screw terminal on the starter. Turn the switch on, the starter should work.

 

Thanks guys. That answers my questions perfectly. DualQuad, I did fit a new flywheel so hopefully I'm all set.

Pete

 

Is this a 364? We had that trouble on my friends buick and found there are different starters for the same engine