i used 4.0 starter clutch and flywheel HELP!!!

[stamina]

i hooked up the red cable to the smaller bolt on the starter, the silver one and it won’t work, do i need to hook it to the gold terminal? or do they both serve a purpose like does one of them need to be grounded??

 

[RonD]

NO.........on the ground

Modern starters have two wires
Larger "cable" from battery positive goes to a larger post on starter, the one that does NOT already have a wire connected

Smaller wire goes to the "S" post, smaller post, will have an "S" next to it, there is no silver or gold color destination for the post

Picture here: https://www.idmsvcs.com/2vmod/starter/solenoidspadeterminal/PICT6197.jpg

"B" is the larger post for Battery cable, usually large red cable
"S" is the smaller post for Activating the starter, Ford used red/blue color wire and Black wire here in 1990

Late 1980's and early 1990's Ford was changing over from a single wire starter to a 2 wire starter
Wiring is of course different but something any one can adapt to, so either will work just needs correct wires

 

[stamina]

NO.........on the ground

Modern starters have two wires
Larger "cable" from battery positive goes to a larger post on starter, the one that does NOT already have a wire connected

Smaller wire goes to the "S" post, smaller post, will have an "S" next to it, there is no silver or gold color destination for the post

Picture here: https://www.idmsvcs.com/2vmod/starter/solenoidspadeterminal/PICT6197.jpg

"B" is the larger post for Battery cable, usually large red cable
"S" is the smaller post for Activating the starter, Ford used red/blue color wire and Black wire here in 1990

Late 1980's and early 1990's Ford was changing over from a single wire starter to a 2 wire starter
Wiring is of course different but something any one can adapt to, so either will work just needs correct wires

so i went and got the harness from the junkyard out of a 4.0, the smaller wire from it needs to be spliced into the red blue? i’ve currently got 2night the open ends on the battery, could someone post a picture of the 4.0 battery section of the engine bay so i know what i need to splice? i had both of the little terminal things that come up to the battery connected to the same post on the little plastic thing next to the battery where my single wire came from originally and as soon as i put the battery ground on the starter motor started on its own. obviously that’s not right, actually every time the little terminal touches any metal the starter tries to go, with the battery ground connected.

 

[RonD]

If you are going to change the wiring from 2.9l to 4.0l then yes, you can do it the easy way
Which is to pull the red/blue wire off the Starter relay(on inner fender, in picture), has the Red 90deg fitting
That wire is currently on "The S post" of the starter relay
And you will then put it on "The S post" of the starter motor, so extend that wire by splicing it

The starter relay(in picture) has one large post with several wires/cables on it, that stays AS IS, just FYI this post is the 12v power distribution point for the whole vehicle
The other larger post will have 1 wire/cable on it, that wire/cable is no longer used, remove it to make things less complicated

Looks like you have already added a larger positive battery cable to the battery terminal, that added cable runs to the starter motors larger post........I assume, or is that for a Winch?

So large cable from battery positive to starter motor
Starter is ground by bolts to bellhousing
Red/blue wire to "S" post on starter

Red/blue wire ONLY has 12v when key is turned to START, and that activates the starter

 

[stamina]

If you are going to change the wiring from 2.9l to 4.0l then yes, you can do it the easy way
Which is to pull the red/blue wire off the Starter relay(on inner fender, in picture), has the Red 90deg fitting
That wire is currently on "The S post" of the starter relay
And you will then put it on "The S post" of the starter motor, so extend that wire by splicing it

The starter relay(in picture) has one large post with several wires/cables on it, that stays AS IS, just FYI this post is the 12v power distribution point for the whole vehicle
The other larger post will have 1 wire/cable on it, that wire/cable is no longer used, remove it to make things less complicated

Looks like you have already added a larger positive battery cable to the battery terminal, that added cable runs to the starter motors larger post........I assume, or is that for a Winch?

So large cable from battery positive to starter motor
Starter is ground by bolts to bellhousing
Red/blue wire to "S" post on starter

Red/blue wire ONLY has 12v when key is turned to START, and that activates the starter

figure it out, put the little terminal on each post where the original starter harness went and the original battery cable went, removed the cable, attached the two open ends to the battery and got it done, RonD, i appreciate you so much you don’t even know.