Im in the process of restoring a 1970 Cougar Eliminator 428cj with Ram Air. The engine was supposedly rebuilt but ive gone and went thru and did a few things that were missed. Now im looking to fire up the engine in my garage to make sure all is well before i put it into the car. Have a sturdy stand, hooked up trans without the torque converter so i can install the starter. Have gas supply radiator on a stand for cooling, Carb adjusted, but cant seem to get the starter to work. I have the positive connected to the starter negative to the block with a switch in between thinking that was all i needed to get it to turn over, No go. I have the distributor wire to coil installed what do i do to get the starter to engage?
Wiring is pretty simple to activate the starter - just as you described.
Have you checked continuities to verify wire path?
What are you using for a switch? Don’t want to assume you’ve wired in a contactor or starter solenoid.
Starters will pull a heck of a lot of current (>100 amperes). If your switch or wire path isn’t rated correctly could act as a fuse but you’d have smelled or seen the effects of that straight away so more likely is an interrupt in the wire path or misbehaving starter.
Does the battery side of the coil need to be hooked up to the positive on the battery? The switch is just a starter button switch. What your saying is the starter should engage with the positive going to the starter when i ground it it should engage?
You’ll need to wire it up for safe and controlled operation.
Poking around on the internet I found this diagram which has a good illustration of your Ford starter, an ignition switch (you’ll want start/run/off control), and basic coil wiring.
Unless you’re using mechanical gauges, you’ll need to add wiring for electrical gauges but I’m sure you can figure that out easy enough.
I would also make sure the freshly rebuilt engine doesn’t have paint on the starter mounting surfaces, and also the area the engine ground is connected. You will need large diameter wire between the battery and the starter. If you just want to check for starter operation you can use jumper cables to momentarily connect between starter and the battery. Connect the positive circuit first, then the battery negative and lastly tap to the engine ground away from any flammable materials. There will be sparks so if you are not comfortable with that, please don’t attempt. If your present start switch is not rated at +100 amps, you may have an issue there.
