Sunstroked

Your service manual will tell you exactly where your ignition switch is located. You do have one for your car dont you? My 72 corvette manual mentions the switch being on the steering column jacket behind the dash, you must lower the column to access the switch. Your car may be different. I would highly suspect wiring as your problem, you mentioned that your positive battery cable insulation was damaged. That may have shorted something else out.
You have already spent quite a bit of money shotgunning parts. That is the term for just replacing parts blindly in the hopes of replacing the faulty part. I bet a competent mechanic would not have cost anymore and your problem would have been fixed.

Alonso4034

My battery only has 700 cold crank amps. could that be the problem why the engine doesnt even spin??

Alonso4034

no i dont have a manuel for it

Derrick Reynolds

If it is only 700 cca, that isn't ideal, but should be able to "spin" your engine. People are notoriously bad about describing starting problems, and the bad habits are contagious. When I (and many other older folks) say the engine is "turning over", I mean that the starter is turning the motor over. When I say it is turning over but there is "no fire", that means I don't hear any firing in any of the cylinders. I am still not clear if your engine is "turning over" in the way I mean or not. You say above that your "engine doesn't even spin", but you said earlier that your fan is turning when you turn the key. If you mean the cooling fan on the front of the motor, these two statements seem contradictory.

When I had problems starting my '70 BB vert, it came down to bad contacts at the solenoid. The solenoid itself was working just fine, but some Bubba had boogered up the threads on the connections such that getting solid reliable contacts was essentially impossible. $12 for a new solenoid and all was right with the world.

70BBvert

If you don't hear any noise from the starter when you turn the key it could be you have the start & ignition wires backwards on the starter. The heavier gauge wire goes on the "s" terminal which is in the frame side of the solenoid. The lighter gauge wire goes to the "I" terminal closest to the engine. Don't remember the colors at the moment.

I don't believe you'll damage anything if they got reversed.

According to the wiring diagram I have on my laptop they should be a 12ga purple to the start terminal & 20ga yellow to the ignition terminal. Colors get hard to see after 40 years of use.

Good Luck

Jim

Alonso4034

when i was saying the fan in the front i did mean the cooling fan in the front of the motor and when i turn the key for the first time after replacing the positive cable for my battery that goes to the starter i attemted to turn the car on and the engine spun and sounded fine but did not catch. it just spun for 3-5 sec and then i attepted to turn it on again and it did the same but felt weaker then i attempted one last time and the engine sounded stuck and didnt spin much if any. i dont understanmd, ive gotten the car to start before but idk im just out of ideas

Alonso4034

So i can just switch the wires and see if that was the problem// but when i tryed to start it, it spun as if it were gonna start but didnt seem to catch on, so does that mean the wires were right??

THefley

sounds as if your batt is weak. first thing to try is jump start it from another car. see if it turns over then or if you hear the clicking from the starter as it tries to engage, if not then you need to start trouble shooting to see if you have juice down to the starter (volt meter)

70BBvert

If it cranked then it sounds like you have the start wire on correctly. Have the battery tested & make sure it's fully charged & correct for your car.

Jim