Where does the negative battery cable wire go?

[71CHEVYSHORTBED402]

Originally Posted by mr48chev

Your secondary ground wire off the battery cable just goes to a spot on the body where you are comfortable with putting it. It serves as a more direct ground to the battery for the lights and for other accessories.

The purple wire has to go to the S post of which ever solenoid you are going to use to energize the starter. Without it properly connected the solenoid isn't going to function and you won't be able to crank the engine.

You don't need the resistor bypass wire from the R post on the solenoid with HEI.

When I changed my 71 to HEI I ran the wire for the hei from one of the hot when the key is on pins on the Fuse block so I could run a heavier gauge wire to the hei.

Make sure that you have the correct HEI wire terminal to plug into the HEI rather than just use a female slide. A female slide will slide at an inopportune time if it loosens up just a tad. Been there done that.

My former mechanic wired the HEI the same as you, My new engine harness was built for HEI, but the harness contains the wire for the R terminal (points dist.) as a standard provision. It includes the TCS and anti-dieseling connects as well.

I called the vendor's contact to clear my head. He says you should connect it to "R" regardless, for what was no more than an explanation you could otherwise have problems. I'm guessing they're simply reducing their own exposure to unforeseen problems. I installed a mini starter that of course doesn't have an "R" terminal, so just cut the connector off, shrink wrapped the wire's end and tucked it into the harness.