Starter motor wiring help!

[crofty1984]

Hello all,
I'm putting the engine back in my boat (it's based on a Buick lump) Volvo Penta AQ175 V6
I'm sturggling with the wiring. The photos I took doing stripdown were mostly lost. I've attached some below of the current state took last week.
I have 2 thin wires, yellow and purple, I'm sure they're OK and are the "activation signal".
My trouble is I have a pair of red & black medium gauge wires and another pair of red & black heavy gauge and I don't know where to put them! I've got 3 obvious points of contact, not 4 and I'm confused. 1 of them seems to be shared between the solenoid then goes through the body of the starter. One's on the solenoid and one's on the body of the motor casing.

Please help!

[aw51 121565]

crofty1984 said:

Hello all,
I'm putting the engine back in my boat (it's based on a Buick lump) Volvo Penta AQ175 V6
I'm sturggling with the wiring. The photos I took doing stripdown were mostly lost. I've attached some below of the current state took last week.
I have 2 thin wires, yellow and purple, I'm sure they're OK and are the "activation signal".
My trouble is I have a pair of red & black medium gauge wires and another pair of red & black heavy gauge and I don't know where to put them! I've got 3 obvious points of contact, not 4 and I'm confused. 1 of them seems to be shared between the solenoid then goes through the body of the starter. One's on the solenoid and one's on the body of the motor casing.

Please help!

On a car, there will be a permanent live feed to the solenoid, this will be a thick cable; there will also be a similarly thick cable between solenoid and motor (which on cars is usually 'part of the starter motor' rather than seperate). Your photos aren't especially clear - but I appreciate you might struggle to get good photos because the starter motor is in situ on the boat .

Where do the various cables attach to on the boat side of things?

I'd hazard a guess that the permanent live(s?) is (are?) the red cable(s?) but this needs to be checked with a voltmeter for 12 v when the battery is connected. I'd also hazard a guess that the black cables are earths and you'd need to check for continuity between their ends and the negative battery lead. You need to check for 12v on the ends of the smaller cables with the ignition key/starter switch in the appropriate positions. I'd also think that 2 small cables is one small cable too many - and would suggest that the 'feed' to operate the solenoid will still be a fairly substantial size rather than the thin wires in the pics?

Good luck!

[john2443]

It looks like there's a permanent connection between the stud on the solenoid and the motor - is that correct?

The thin wires look correct, one should become live when you operate the starter key/button and the other go to earth.

The red thick wire is probably live in to the solenoid and the thick black could be the earth from the motor? although I'd expect that to just go through the bracket.

I would check each lead with a voltmeter or test light before I put any power on though!

Edit - the stud on the motor might not be used, could be there for power in when the solenoid is remote from the motor.

Edited by john2443 on Wednesday 20th November 19:17

[shovelheadrob]

You need to put a multi meter on the wires to establish what is what, there should be a =ve live from the battery, a switched live from the ignition switch or starter button (depending which you have) the other heavy cable could be an earth or it could be the live feed to the ignition switch or fuse block, in which case it would go on the same terminal of the solenoid as the feed in. The other small wire mat well be a ballast bypass for the ignition as most American stuff of this era used a ballast resistor in series with the coil, when the starter solenoid is engaged this wire would go to the coil side of the resistor to give a stronger spark for starting.

[rash_decision]

Follow the wires? On my last boat, the feed from the battery went to the starter, then another wire with a crimped end went on to the same pole, and fed the bilge pump for the automatic aspect of it.

I discovered this the hard way! Broke down on an island, removed the starter in prep for my mate bringing me a replacement. Obviously had everything disconnected, but never realised the boat was taking on water and nearly sank!