Hi guys, I'm about to go crazy over here.

I'm trying to start my 302 that's in my 52 Ford truck. This is an initial test fire so I'm not quite fully wired up with an actual harness.
So far, I have ran a a groundwire from my block to the negative on the battery, ran a hot wire from my starter that when I graze the positive it causes the starter to clunk, and I have ran a wire from my starter to my positive post that says its supposed to have 12 volts constantly.

I have an HEI distributor that I have ran a positive from the battery side to the positive post on my battery....

But I still have no engine running, and I have noticed....I have no coil either, that I know of unless its inside of the distributor.

I'm a newbie and electrical things aren't my best subject. Please, any help at all would be appreciated, in lamans terms please!

Thank you,

Jon Preston

 

Jon,

A Ford 302 starter doesn't have 12 volts continuous. There should only be power to the starter when you're cranking.

It sounds like you should wire in a starter solenoid so you can control your starter. There have been a lot of schematics posted, so I'll look for a link to a thread for you so you can have a pic to work with.

Here's a pic:

Ignore the coil part if you're using HEI, but you can hook your ignition power up to the battery + temporarily to power the HEI. Eventually you'll hook that to your ignition switch.

To crank, jump a wire from the S terminal to the battery +. You'll eventually hook this wire to the Start terminal on your ignition switch.

I'm not sure who posted the pic originally, but I googled it and it said the image was here on FTE.

Dan

 

Your HEI distributor has the coil sitting on top of it.

 

Dan has it right. Follow his diagram and you should be OK.

 

Hi guys,

I got my 302 fired up this afternoon! Turns out it was just a bad ground and I had a technical difficulty in my understandings, but I was able to fire the engine and I have to say, it was pretty great!

Thank you for all your help!

Jon Preston