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I'm looking for a short...
Are you a believer the ignition sparks are created in the solenoid or would you agree something is wrong in there?
Not sure what you expect to need to rebuild on a 1600 miles solenoid if not shot.
Will clean and connect everything up and try to start it again tonight.
Last edited by Wannes Smedts; Jun 27, 2018 at 01:26 AM.
No I didn't, used the start button (and wire).
I checked the wiring, but I guess it make sense to perform the test to rule the start button and wiring out completely.
I know that's what Dan was talking about, but have a look at the condition of the parts (after some cleaning)
Vernal, thanks for steering me towards the single test I skipped...
Hooked up the battery with car starting cables, sparks flew from solenoid terminal upon touching.
Engine turning over very slowly.
Cables became too hot to touch, battery voltage 12.9V -> 11V
Hooked up battery with the original cables.
Engine turning over very smoothly. 12.6V -> 10.8V
So a big relief, will turn my attention to the starter button and replace the relais. (Switched those over already, but both could be failing)
After cleaning all terminals, replacing some cables & connections, battery and relais all worked fine.
So not a clear indicator for what went wrong in the first place, but glad it got fixed.
And yes, apparently it's normal the two seperate circuits show some continuation...
Starter dind't fail again since the work was done.
No the engine wasn't running since I unhooked all cables, (spark) plugs,... to eliminate interferience on testing.
Engine did turn though (but not running)
Didn't short the contacts out: Negative cable was hooked up to ground post on starter (as intented)
What do you mean by a ground post? The starter gets it's ground via the mounting bolts. If there is a ground cable from the battery to the starter, it should be on one of the mounting bolts.
The starter run switch energizes the control coil which connects full battery current into the starter motor winding via the big wire and the case mounting bolts. That means a lot of current through those contacts. If there is a lot of sparking coming from those contacts, look at the contacts and the motor. It also may be time to replace your starter motor brushes.
To answer your question as best as I can understand it, yes, you should read very high resistance all the way to an open circuit from the battery cable connection to ground unless the solenoid is closed, then you will read low resistance because the solenoid contacts will close the circuit between the terminal and the motor winding and ground. You will read some resistance between the solenoid control coil winding (the small terminal) and ground. I do not know what it should be, but it should be a measurable difference through the coil winding to frame ground.
Good luck!
Last edited by skinman13; May 17, 2019 at 12:32 PM.
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