Starter purple wire grounded out from starter crushing it

SCOTTCERTIFIED

MEMBER
1992 CHEVROLET 1500
5.7L
V8
2WD
AUTOMATIC
140,000 MILES

I bought the truck from a guy that put the starter on himself. The truck cranked right up and he drove it around the block. It started running funny he described it like it had a blown head gasket, he got it back home. Tried to crank it again and nothing he said. I got up under and couldn't find the purple wire to the solenoid, I removed the starter and found the wire damaged, it is burnt where the wire was grounding out due to the starter crushing it. My question is, could that have caused the truck to misfire or such to lose power? If that wire is in great contact by ground, could my distributor be ruined? I will have a battery tomorrow to tinker with it.

1 Reply

SCGRANTURISMO

MECHANIC
4,897 POSTS

Hello,

No, and I'm surprised the vehicle started at all the first time. In the diagrams down below I have included a wiring diagram of the starting circuit for your vehicle. As you can see from the wiring diagram the purple wire is coming from the ignition switch and powers the control side of the starter double pull solenoid (which acts just like a relay). With the coils receiving battery voltage, the power side of the starter solenoid will not have the switch closed to let current through to the starter to crank the engine. I have also included a diagram and callout for your vehicle's fuse panel in the diagrams down below. Please check fuses # 13,14,15 for us as well. As far as it running bad I would start with a compression test, and here is a link explaining how to do that below:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-test-engine-compression

Please get back to us with what you are able to find out.

Thanks,
Alex
2CarPros