In a message dated 4/25/99 10:31:42 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
lukehart@mis.net writes:
> Thank you very much for your info. You seem extemely knowledgable. Please
> excuse my ignorance, this is my first LBC. I was under the impresion that
> my selenoid is conected directly to my starter. Correct? I have two wires
> that connect to it. 1) the red positive battery cable connected to a large
> terminal, and 2) a smaller white wire with a pink stripe connected via a
> female terminal to the side of the selenoid. When I turn the key I get a
> click from BOTH a relay on the inside of the fender on the drivers side,
and
> what I understand to be the starter selenoid. If I pull the white/pink
wire
> off the selenoid I only get the click from the relay.
>
> In part 2 of your response you mention TWO large terminals with TWO wires.
> I have only the wires mentioned above. The other terminal has no wire
> connected to it. I found this odd but dismissed it because I took nothing
> off of that terminal and the car started five minutes before I replace the
> cable. ???
Eric,
The solenoid performs two functions - 1) it operates a lever inside the
starter which drives the gear on the starter output shaft into contact with
the flywheel, and 2) after the starter gear has moved forward enough to make
contact, it closes a set of high power contacts inside the solenoid. This set
of contacts then provides power to the starter motor itself.
This type of starter is known as a "pre-engaged" type, as the starter teeth
must be "engaged" with the flywheel "pre" the application of power to the
motor to start it spinning.
On the bottom of your solenoid, there will be another large terminal just
like the one you attached the battery cable to. There should be either a
large cable or a solid copper bar (depending on the model of the starter)
from this terminal into the starter. This is the cable that carries the power
from the solenoid switch.
If you are missing this cable, or copper bar, you would get exactly the
symptoms you described. Since you are getting a click from the solenoid, you
can eliminate everything in you car except the solenoid and the starter. It
may be that the solenoid is not moving far enough to operate the switch, or
if it is, the starter is just not working.
I may have mislead you when I said you would have a large cable, as you may
very well have a copper bar instead (in the power industry where I worked, a
copper bus bar could be referred to as a cable). Check your starter/solenoid
and see. It is possible, but not very likely, that the bar could have broken
off, or the terminal might have come loose, while you were replacing the
battery cable. It's also possible that your particular starter/solenoid has
this second wire entirely concealed within the housing -- ala Ford -- but I
would be surprised. Any listers encounter this?
Try jumpering to that lower terminal (after verifying that the connection is
indeed still there) with one of a pair of jumper cables as I described
previously. That test will tell you for sure whether it's the solenoid or the
starter.
In a separate post, I am sending you a jpg of an MGB starter so you can see
what I'm referring to by "copper bar," as the MGB has this rather than the
more traditional stranded cable.
Dan Masters,
Alcoa, TN
'71 TR6---------3000mile/year driver, fully restored
'71 TR6---------undergoing full restoration and Ford 5.0 V8 insertion - see:
http://members.aol.com/danmas/
'74 MGBGT---3000mile/year driver, original condition - slated for a V8 soon
'68 MGBGT---organ donor for the '74
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