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solenoid wiring

napa 1

Donation Time
I have a new starter solenoid (original lucas design). The car came with a replacement american made solenoid, with markings on the two extra terminal "s" and "i". The wire to the ignition switch is wired to the "s" terminal, nothing to the "i" terminal. the starter is connected to the passenger side terminal and the battery to the driver side terminal. The new solenoid does not have any markings except a "cs" on one of the smaller terminals. It did not come with wiring instructions, so I'm needing a little help in sorting it out. Does anyone have this type of Solenoid? You can see a photo of it at this site:
http://www.bpnorthwest.com/.sc/ms/dd/ee/6709/Starter Solenoid Mid 75-80, Spit 75-80

thanks.
 

mikephillips

Donation Time
From memory, since I'm not home to look. Cable from the battery goes to the terminal closest to the firewall, cable to the starter on the outside terminal, Wire from the switch to the spade on top in between. If the one you're replacing wasn't fastened to the firewall the new one should be, you'll see 2 holes in the firewall on the r/h side as you stand in front looking back at the car. They have nuts welded on the inside and are 10/32 thread I think.
 

Wombat

Donation Time
John

That solenoid is almost identical to the solenoid in my old Hillman Hunter, but for the life of me, I can't remember which terminal the starter switch connects to. I would try the male one to the left of picture. Thy this test:

Hold the body of the solenoid to the negative terminal of a battery. Connect a wire to the spade terminal. The one that makes the solenoid go "CLICK" us the starter switch terminal. The other small terminal, I think is used to bypass the ballast resistor (if fitted) when starting.

Alternatively, if you have a multimeter, the starter terminal will have a resistance of a few ohms to earth. The other will have no connection to earth. If I am right about it being used to bypass the ballast resistor the other terminal should have a direct connection to one of the high current terminals. That high current terminal is the one that connects to the starter, the other to the battery.

You may also have to fit one of the spade terminals to the battery terminal to connect to your generator/alternator (depending on what sort of terminal is on that wire).
 

Tom H

Platinum Level Sponsor
A solenoid is one of the simplest electrical devices in your car. The two big posts are interchangeable, wire them whichever way is convenient - the battery cable goes on one big post (along with other cables that connect there for power to the rest of the system). In other words whichever large post you connect the battery cable to becomes the main connection post for just about all under hood power. And then connect the starter cable (the starter cable only) to the other large post.

The wire from the ignition switch (should be a red/white wire from terminal 3 of the ignition switch) connects to one of the small terminals on the solenoid. In the original solenoid the ground connection for the coil inside the solenoid is made by mounting the body of the solenoid to the car. The coil inside is already connected to the body of the solenoid. But it looks like the solenoid you show in the link has an extra (small) terminal and that terminal needs to be grounded.

You might take a look at the wiring drawing "Matt" posted on the old forum a while back (Thanks, Matt and the team that put the old forum back up!)
http://alpine.forumup.com/viewtopic.php?t=35&mforum=alpine

Tom H
 
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