Hello new to the site but only thing i could think of,
I have a 1978 nova 2 door with the 250 inline 6, went to start it this morning car started gave it a little gas car turned off, not surprised for the age of the car so went to start it back up, no go just turns over, replaced the cap, rotor, coil, will turn over but wont start i know their is a pinkish red wire that comes from the loom that separates going to the starter and alternator, well that pinkish red wire goes to the fire wall, and i saw that it the plastic connector that keeps it to the firewall was melted, and every time i attempted to connect it it arcs, any clues what might be causing it

 

not my car in the image but i does have this wire that goes to the loom and goes to the starter and alternator

 

Where on the firewall are you trying to connect it to? If the car started at first with this wire disconnected, then it doesn't need it to run.

 

I looked up wiring,77 shows pink to idle stop solenoid,78 shows pink to coil,but these would be dead with key off

 

?,both diagrams show stand alone coil, wouldn't that car have a hei distributor?bad info from a book, again?

 

If it has HEI, that could be the resistor wire off the starter solenoid. With key on, should have less than battery voltage. That system has a dual coil power source, one is from the full battery with the starter engaged (key switch on/crank). With the key in on (not in start/crank) you have a lower than battery to the coil. Trace it down to mthe solenoid, the post's on the solenoid (two small ones) will be an S, the other R. The R is the resistor side. If during crank, it starts then dies after you move the ignition switch from start to on, and this is the suspect wire, that explains why it dies.

 

Crude, but this is a simple diagram

 

Where was the dual connection?I'm gonna burn my old book if I can't find that,lol

 

I'm still looking,bad info,I know your right,"r" was on the solenoid for a reason

 

I could be single, I wasn't sure so, if you look at my hand drawing you will notice eraser marks. It is a parallel circuit, both on at crank, straight battery off with on, no crank position on the switch.