Starter Question

[1978steven]

I recently put my long tube headers on my '71. When I was doing the passenger side I had to remove the starter. I carefully took the starter down being cautious to not let it hang by the wires. I noted that it had the main power connection from the battery and also a yellow wire on a smaller connection. I marked the little connection the yellow wire went on. When going to put the starter back in I ran across a broken brown wire that looks like it needs to be hooked on the other small connection on the starter. Does this wire need to be hooked up or not? I traced it up to somewhere behind the distributer. I don't know if it goes to the points style distributer or something I am missing. The truck starts and seems to run fine. No missing, sputtering, backfiring, or anything.

What is or was this wire for? Do I need it?

Thanks for the help,
Steven