im putting an american autowire harness in my 63. i finsihed the wiring to start it up, or so i thought. when i atach the positive battery cable it sparks at the battery and the starter clicks like it is turning. it has an hei distributor. thanks for any help

If you are drawing power from the battery whether it is something trying to operate or a short to ground it will spark at the battery when you try to hook up the battery. Take the small wire off the solenoid and see if the spark stops and if it does then you have found what's drawing juice. Then you have to see where the solenoid wire is getting power from. Maybe the key switch start terminal and ign are wired backwards.
Did you get a harness for a 63 or one for a 75 or later HEI vehicle. You need to know this cause you won't use the old resistance wire for the points. Make sure you have the voltage regulator wired correctly. Do you have an alternator conversion or the generator? Lots of questions and no answers. LOL

thanks for the help vette. it is the kit for the 63 chevy. i have an internally regulated alternator and i am not using the old wire for the points.

You might want to provide some more details....
However, instead of using a battery, use a battery charger to provide the power, alot less chance of a major melt down if something is wrong.
Unhook the ignition switch and the alternator in a safe way and re-test. You may have a miss-wired pigtail somewhere causing an issue or a defective alternator. Check your grounds for a good connection. This is a difficult problem to diagnose via text.

thanks bubba green. i unhooked the ignition and then tried to atach the batteray cable again and it did the same thing. when i told the guy at american autowire that he told me that the starter is shorting out and i have a bad starter. any ideas? the starter instructions say that i may need to realign the contacts or something inside of the selenoid. thanks

Ok...unhook ALL the wires on the starter.
After making sure those wires are not touching each other or a ground, attach the battery. You should only have 12V on the big wire coming from the battery. If you have 12V on the purple wire (the wire that engages the solenoid) then you have an issue with the harness somewhere. If you dont you most likely have a bad starter. Disconnect the battery again. Hook only the BATTERY cable to the starter, now reconnect the battery....make sure the other wires dont touch anything....what happens? If the starter is trying to turn, you definetly have an issue with the starter/solenoid.
How many wires are attached to your starter?
BATTERY?
START? (purple)
any others?