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Electrical Did I wire this mini starter correctly? With pics!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tonys96Cobra
  • Start date Start date Jun 1, 2023

Tonys96Cobra

professional deer "mounter"
Oct 28, 2005
19
9
29
Syracuse
Jun 1, 2023
#1
  • Jun 1, 2023
  • #1
Took the car apart 6 months ago, and now putting it back together with a few upgrades. Wasn't sure if this was the correct way to wire the new mini starter. I tried to give it a "bump", but jost got a single "click". Battery shows a full charge.

Here is the wiring at the starter, you can see the trigger wire on the small post on the left, and the starter cable on the upper post. This is the part I'm not sure about.





Here is the wiring at the fenderwell. Batt cable, and starter cable both on the left terminal, and trigger wire on the right terminal. This one I'm fairly confident I got right.







Thanks Guys!
 

AeroCoupe

lube between the nut and the face. I know my lubes
Founding Member
Oct 28, 2001
5,832
3,964
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Claremore, OK
Jun 2, 2023
#2
  • Jun 2, 2023
  • #2
I removed the wire that has the warning label not to remove it. They want you to tie your red trigger wire into that one but it's useless if you have enough wire like you do. Should not stop the starter from working just a loose wire that has no purpose.

You have it wired just like mine so if it does not work I would check and see if there is 12V+ on the post of the starter relay mounted on the driver inner fender that is going to the mini starter when you have the key in the start position. If you have 12V+ there then it should be down at the mini starter solenoid. Have you confirmed you have 12V+ battery at the mini starter? If all of this checks good then I would suspect the starter is either bad or is not getting a good ground which is almost impossible with it bolted to the bell housing.
 
Reactions: General karthief

CAMTWO1070

Active Member
Dec 17, 2021
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NY
Jun 3, 2023
#3
  • Jun 3, 2023
  • #3
What I see is a wiring mistake....It just matters the type of starter is how the mistakes need to be overcome..

If you look at he top post on the mini starter the battery positive wire is bent downwards making contact with the starter motor contact so when the battery is connected the starter should instantly turn without the key being activated ......

Another thing you need to do when hooking up some mini starters is to do away with the original starter solenoid too....My starter was from a 1990 Lincoln Towncar and I needed to do away with the OEM solenoid on the vehicle.

The way I wired mine is I used a 2ga fine strand wire and ran that from the battery to the top post on the starter direct.




Then I took the starter trigger wire (red/blue) off of the OEM solenoid and added 3 extra feet of 10-12 ga wire and hooked that directly to the s side of the mini starter solenoid.


Sometimes all you need to do is hook the newly installed red wire coming from the solenoid going to the starter into the red with blue stripe thats attached to the OEM solenoid,,,

The stock solenoid can be turned into a power distribution block by hooking 8 ga wires from the battery to each post then distributing the power from the posts....


Usually a direct replacement mini starter is just a simple swap just like changing a stock starter..

If you can please take a pic of the tag on the starter because on some models the starter trigger is soldered to the motor contact wire so the hookups arent changed much....What youll end up with is a double solenoid setup where the second solenoid is triggered by the top post wire coming from the stock starter solenoid and the small screw post with the 5/16" nut on the new starter is for cars with points type ignitions.


 
Last edited: Jun 3, 2023

AeroCoupe

lube between the nut and the face. I know my lubes
Founding Member
Oct 28, 2001
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Claremore, OK
Jun 3, 2023
#4
  • Jun 3, 2023
  • #4
So doing away with the inner fender starter solenoid is absolutely not necessary as most of the conversions still have it. If the cables were touching the minute the battery was connected this would have been a thread on how a car burned down. Can it be done? Yes. Does it look cleaner? Without a doubt yes. Is it easy? No based on having to find some kind of distribution block to land all the factory wires on so everything works right.

Technically the wiring is correct and should work. Hell, mine has been wired like that for many years and zero problems.
 
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