Thirdgen starter

Sep 03, 2005 2 Replies

Anyone who has read my posts knows how crappy my last few weeks have been, vehicle-wise. Well here's another.



The starter on my '90 GTA (305/700R4, TPI) crapped out. The original one has two terminals. Three wires under the larger terminal (one low gauge and two higher gauge), , and a single high gauge wire on the smaller terminal. The new starter has three terminals, one large and two small. Should I just ignore the extra terminal? A ground maybe? I yanked the old starter last night but was just too damned tired to wrestle the new one into place. It didn't wanna go on and got heavier with each attempt. I also had to swap a bolt between starters, as the new one didn't have the small threaded section on the endbell for the starter-to-block brace. Other than that and the terminals they look interchangeable.


The "extra" terminal is for the resistor wire on points style ignition - 1974 and older. Replacement starters are typically universal so they fit a large number of applications.

Ah, thanks. Good to know for the future. I already hooked it up ignoring the extra terminal and it fired up better than it ever has. That starter must've been slow since I bought the car.

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