Starter Grounding Question

[xludan]

I am in the process of rewiring my truck and I can't remember if there was a wire grounding the starter or not. I currently have the starter hooked up as follows:

-Wire from positive battery terminal to big post
-Purple wire to the 's' terminal
-yellow wire to the 'r' terminal

My problem is when I turn the ignition key nothing happens at all. I found that if i take a jumper wire from the negative battery terminal to the housing of the starter the starter engadges and works just fine. So am I missing a ground wire somewhere?

[Kerry P]

The starter is grounded by its contact to the engine block. The engine block does require a substantial ground lead(unless you are using steel motor mounts).

Kerry P

[Longhorn Man]

You need to address the ground cable off the battery.
I usually bolt it irectly to the block somewhere... make sure it is bolted to clean bare metal.
If you have the battery grounded to the frame, then you are trying to pass a huge amperage load through small wires not designed to handle the load.

[xludan]

I figured it out last night. I recently rebuilt the motor and painted the block so the starter wasn't making a good ground against the block. I sanded down the area to bare metal where the starter meets the block and everything works fine now. Thanks for the help guys.