2G stupid starter wiring question...

[BLOHS7844]

Ok so I'm hooking my starter back up and I'm having issues. I see 3 wires, a pos, neg, and small wire. I know the neg goes on the starter mounting bolt. The pos goes on the terminal closest to the firewall and the small wire goes on top. I did this and went to hook up my battery. When I connected the ground to the battery my starter started going. What's wrong here?

 

[tlcoolj]

well your big + wire is making a connection to the second post on the starter solenoid or to the terminal where the small wire connects, thus causing the starter to engage whenever you connect your battery. If you have the pos wire connected to the post closest to the firewall then that is the correct post, so that leads me to believe it may be making a connection to the smaller wire terminal. Make sure the pos has the rubber cover on it to prevent it from making a connection to the smaller wires terminal, also whenever you torqued down the nut for the pos wire the metal end could have rotated and became too close to the terminal. Taking pictures are nice too, they speak a thousand words.

 

[miguelmcv]

It might be your + Cable is touching the small connector at the starter, When you tight the + cable at the starter, You have to align the + cable, other wise, the + cable will end up touching and trigger the starter.

 

[BLOHS7844]

That sounds like that's a definite possibility. I took as little stuff out of my engine as possible so I didn't have too much working room and I could have definitely done that. Thanks guys

 

[95'RS-T]

Your ground wire is supposed to be grounded to one of the bell housing bolts not the starter.

 

[NHerron]

Your ground wire is supposed to be grounded to one of the bell housing bolts not the starter.

...If you're mistaking the STARTER MOUNTING BOLTS for 'bell housing bolts' then the starter gets grounded via the 'bell housing bolts'.

The large ground terminal ideally is as close to the starter as it can get, for maximum current due to the least resistance.

 

[BLOHS7844]

The starter is held to the flywheel/trans area with 2 bolts. I have it grounded on one of those. That's where it was before.

Also why is one of the copper terminals on the starter not used?

Ok so I checked and I really don't think that the pos is touching the other terminal or the little wire but it still spins when I hook up the battery. Is it a short? And also the starter isn't turning the motor or anything. It;s just kinda spinning on its own

 

[NHerron]

I don't know how you can hook it up any other way but-

The positive cable should go on the copper stud closest to the firewall. If the two copper studs are touching, the starter motor will spin but not engage the flywheel. Same thing if the cable is hooked to the copper stud closest to engine block, it will spin but not engage flywheel.

 

[95'RS-T]

...If you're mistaking the STARTER MOUNTING BOLTS for 'bell housing bolts' then the starter gets grounded via the 'bell housing bolts'.

The large ground terminal ideally is as close to the starter as it can get, for maximum current due to the least resistance.

No, I'm not mistaking the starter bolts for bell housing bolts. In fact my ground is grounded to my top bell housing bolt after the starter. Although I was mistaking the ground. There is no ground on the starter. I understand that ground is used to ground the starter but I'm just saying that's how mine is hooked up and that's how I got the car it seems to work fine, but now that I know it's supposed to be on the starter bolts I will hook it up like that when I put the motor back in. Thanks

OP sounds like your starter solenoid is bad.
One way to test this is to remove the small wire from the starter and put the battery terminal on. If the starter still turns over the solenoid is bad.

 

[BLOHS7844]

When I just had it out of the car I didn't have the little wire hooked up and it still ran

 

[95eclispe]

get a multimeter and test your connections and make sure everything is properly connected. If the ground is secured to the housing bolt you should be fine. leave the small wire out and try starting the car without since you said it was disconnected before. I would test your solenoid as well just in case it went bad while you were hooking it up to the battery. when you connected it did you have you battery disconnected? if not I would try taking the neg off for a few minutes and see if resetting it fixes the issue.
Just some ideas to try out

 

[BLOHS7844]

I had the starter out and tested it. I just had the pos hooked up and the neg. No small wire and the starter was going.

Ill take it to autozone to get it tested

 

[NHerron]

Just to clarify, according to the picture below, how do you have it hooked up when it kicks on without the small wire attached?

For it to run without the small wire, you would have to hook the positive cable directly to the M stud (left stud)

The positive battery cable should be hooked to the B stud (right) and negative on the aluminum starter case. It should not be doing anything/moving at this point. Then take another wire and jump it from the positive cable to where the small wire normally hooks to the spade connector. It should then kick out the pinion gear and spin.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

 

[turboglenn]

^^just like the pic. If your starter has two terminals for the "start" live wire (one that makes it engage) you'll know the wrong one is hooked up when there's something buzzing in the cabin when hooked up

 

[BLOHS7844]

One thing thats different is I never hooked anything up to the terminal on the left...

Also the starter was just spinning and not turning the motor

 

[NHerron]

With no power applied, where does the pinion gear sit right now? Is it retracted back in it's home or is it extended all the way out? Like pictures

 

[BLOHS7844]

it is like the top picture.

 

[NHerron]

Well, you got me. Hopefully someone will put down a logical theory or nail my ass to the wall for not seeing something obvious.

If the pinion is retracted in it's home, the copper disc within the solenoid should not be shorting the two studs together.
If the positive is not bolted to the M terminal (left stud), +12V should not be reaching the motor coils.

 

[BLOHS7844]

I'm getting a resistance of 0 ohms from either terminal to the ground so the solenoid has to be bad

Also one of the terminals is loose

 

[NHerron]

Those are the results you'd get if having this problem so I'm not surprised. However, the loose terminal may have something to do with it. There should be a nut which holds the stud tight. Normally it goes nut, cable, and another nut

 

[BLOHS7844]

I found a starter for 35 shipped so I'm just gonna go with that and call it a day. Thanks for your help

 

[NHerron]

Coolness

If you ever decide to crack open the solenoid for inspection (not too much trouble) I'd love to hear what's going on in there -how it's shorting out

 

[97gst13]

Hey my bad jump in the conversation after 3 weeks but i have a question.

So I have my starter like the picture up top because I know that's how those wires go but other then them 3 wires I have one more wire where would that fourth wire go connected to? My starter mounting bolt?

 

[NHerron]

You're talking about the large heavy gauge wire right? And the other heavy one IS ALREADY connected to the back of the starter?

Then yes the one without the red rubber isolator gets bolted on via the starter mounting bolt

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

 

[97gst13]

by that diagram picture looks like it would be the ground wire that would be connected to the firewall but i don't think thats where it goes is there any way i can post a picture of the wire so you can have a better idea of the wire