Electrical Mini starter wiring question

HemiRick said:

The mini starter also has a solenoid built into it, so you can eliminate the stock one....I would just google installing a ministater into a fox mustang.....Yes you need to make a longer fat wire, and run the small wire from the stock solenoid to the starter.

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Mustang5L5 said:

Here's a good example of alternative wiring with the mini starter.



You can use the original solenoid as the "power bus" as shown in the above picture. ALL of the wires get moved over to one terminal on the starter relay. Now, the red/blue wire in the above pic is the small wire that connects to the post on the starter solenoid. When they gets power from the ignition, it closes the relay and energizes the other post on the original starter relay. This is where the yellow wire would connect. That yellow wire then activates ther solenoid on the starter.

You can clean that all up by eliminating the original starter relay and using a Bosch type relay. The wire from the ignition activates the relay instead. Mount the relay somewhere accessible, and toss a spare in the glovebox.

I used 4GA welding cable, with crimp/solder end terminals to make a new cable.


Here's a cheap, robust OEM distribution block

GM Distribution Block - WARR Performance LLC

These were used on GM full sized trucks and were meant to handle the full alternator output as well as provide battery power to everything but the starter, so they can handle a good amount of current. They’re great for use on projects where you have a lot of accessories that require power or...

warrperformance.com

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Mustang5L5 said:

So,

Assuming you keep the old starter relay. All of your main power wires and 4GA wire from the alt, battery and starter are on one single terminal. It acts as a distribution block. The main 4GA wire on your starter is now energized all the time.

On the empty post, you would put your smaller trigger wire. 12Ga or so (yellow wire on the above diagram). When you turn the key to stay, the original starter relay connects both sides, and you send power down the trigger wire to the starter where it activates the relay that is phsycially on the starter.

The way this differs from the pre-91 wiring method is that those starters do not have the solenoid on the starter itself, so the 4GA battery wire is alone on one side of the original starter solenoid and when you turn the key to start, it momentarily gets energized while cranking. The 91-later mini starters use the orginal relay to activate another relay, so you really just move that 4GA starter wire over to the post with all the other connections and run a trigger wire on the other side.

Make sense?

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