I have finally gotten to the stage of starting my '68. It has been a 2 year journey on the restoration. Using the ignition, I get nothing. However, when I use a remote bypass switch at the starter, it works great and the engine fires up and idles nicely. I have a new harness from American Wire that came wired for an HEI distributor. The purple wire on my harness is connected to the starter and the yellow wire is just taped off since there is no terminal for that wire. I am running a 1973 Chevy 350.

Thanks for any help anyone can offer.

Hank

 

I believe your ignition switch powers the coil only in the run position, whereas mine has a dual position switch powering the coil in start and run. This is where the R terminal at the starter (if you had one) would power your coil while cranking the starter. When using the remote switch, your ignition switch is in the run position, so the coil has power. You can verify what you do/don't have by checking power with a test meter at the coil while trying to start, I'm sure you'll find no power there, which means you need to alter your wiring. There are a couple of options, look here: http://static.summitracing.com/globa...um-829100a.pdf

 

I figured out the problem. My new wiring harness comes with a neutral safety switch socket. I needed to run a wire across the leads and now it starts great with the key. Phew!