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Gear reduction starter wiring  Rate Topic 
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 Posted: 05-19-2016 08:53 pm
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Mondial1
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who has replaced their orig. starter with the gear reduction starter from British Starters .com? Had a wiring question and no one at B. Starters is answering the phone.

I have 4 wires from my old unit and the diagrams I looked at on line show only 2 wires. I know the Positive cable runs to the large lug on the side. Do the other large brown wires go to the lug as well? the original battery cable is not long enough to make the journey to the lug, so I will be running new wires. Anyone have a pic of their successful installation? Which of the 2 smaller white wires is for the ignition switch and where do they go? I do not have a remote firewall mounted starter solenoid, wouldn't that be a starter relay instead of being called a solenoid? I always thought the solenoid was the round unit attached to the starter itself. Things are getting lost in my translation of the minimalist directions.

Thanks!

Mark

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 Posted: 05-20-2016 06:44 am
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subwoofer
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There shouldn't be any need to run a new wire from the battery, the connection is at more or less the exact same distance from the battery.

You only need two wires to the starter, I don't think the new starter has provision for bypassing the ballast resistor on the coil as used to be the norm, no cars built the last 30 years use a ballast resistor. Replacing the resistor and coil with a 12V coil (blue Bosch, gold Lucas Sport) will give you better spark.

You asked for a picture, luckily I happen to have the airbox out this week to replace the rotor and dizzy cap (still waiting on parts) so snapping a photo was easy.



You might want to consider changing the angle of the starter slightly, there is plenty of room to do so and it will make access to the plug leads a lot easier. I didn't do it, but I might just pull it while I am in there.

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Joachim

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 Posted: 05-20-2016 03:27 pm
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Mondial1
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My positive cable and associated wiring looks different from yours, cant really see where any of your wires are mounted, but thanks for the picture, good Luck

Attachment: 004.JPG (Downloaded 68 times)

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 Posted: 05-20-2016 05:20 pm
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answerman
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I have the same installation (might be a different starter but it's the same idea) and it was pretty straightforward. I'll try to get a picture of it today, but basically you should have 3 wires attached to the starter solenoid (which is the smaller piggyback unit on top of the starter).

Going from memory, you should have 2 wires connected to the large lug on the solenoid. One is the battery cable, and the other is a smaller brown wire which runs back to the alternator and attaches to the center terminal (the "voltage sense" wire). Then, you have a third wire which connects to the solenoid "trigger". I don't remember the color, but it's the one from the ignition switch.

The 4th wire, as Joachim said, is there to provide 12v to the ballast resistor during starting. I can't remember the color offhand. You won't have anywhere to attach that on the starter, but the good news is that you don't need it. To verify, clean it up so you can see what color it is (maybe brown with a white stripe, or white with a brown stripe?), get a continuity tester, and find the other end at the ballast resistor. Once you find it, just tape it off or something (I just had my wiring harness out and actually pulled the harness out and removed it). My car is starting just fine without it, probably because the gear reduction starter spins so much faster.

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 Posted: 05-21-2016 11:06 am
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subwoofer
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Brown wires (without stripes) are unfused, constant 12V, so they attach to any point between the large starter terminal and + on the battery. Mine are all taken from the connection block midway down the thick cable from the battery to the starter.

The solenoid trigger is white with red stripe, fairly heavy gauge wire. I snapped another picture after changing the orientation of my starter.



BEWARE: Colour schemes are very different from country to country, on a German car brown wires are connected to chassis. Always check what a colour means before assuming...

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Joachim

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 Posted: 05-21-2016 03:43 pm
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Mondial1
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Thanks! just downloaded a couple of wiring diagrams and trying to make sure I got it right, would love to see what a functioning hookup looks like. don't get many second chances with electrical components. I replaced the original + cable that had the cheesy splice connector in the middle for the fuse block power supply. Hooked all the brown wires to the starter lug, and the White and white red wires to the solenoid tab connection. Pictured below Your thoughts please.

Attachment: 001starter pic 3.jpg (Downloaded 56 times)

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 Posted: 05-21-2016 03:47 pm
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Mondial1
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Anyone know what the lone white wire that was connected to the original solenoid goes to / from ? can you also include a pic of your coil connections, I eliminated the ballast and installed a 3.0 ohm internal coil isn't one of the white wires drive the Tach?

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 Posted: 05-21-2016 07:21 pm
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Screenplay
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If the wire in question is white/yellow (look carefully, even after cleaning those colors really fade) it should go to the positive coil.

The ballast resister on one end has a yellow/white wire bridged from the positive coil, and on the other end a white wire that works its way back to the tach. I still have a ballast resistor, so I don't know how the tach is kept operational but It must be covered somewhere here.

Last edited on 05-21-2016 07:33 pm by Screenplay

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 Posted: 05-21-2016 07:44 pm
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Screenplay
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This explanation may help - read down to Mark Rosenbaum's answer on tach wiring:

http://www.jensenhealey.com/forums/view_topic.php?id=86

Last edited on 05-21-2016 07:44 pm by Screenplay

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 Posted: 05-23-2016 04:33 pm
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Mondial1
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the article you mentioned did help to put the pieces of the puzzle together. I eliminated the white / yellow wire from the coil to the solenoid and hooked up the larger red / white wire. The starter operated as it should. Thanks for everyone's help

signed, electrically challenged

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