MHT

the cable runs from the battery ,through the firewall, along the engine side of the firewall, makes a turn and is secured to the oil filler/separator. It then runs down the left side of the bell-housing to the starter.

Devia

MHT has described it well; also check out the starter cable, they are side by side at the positive terminal of the battery, both go through the firewall. Make sure nothing is rubbing or bending the wires too harshly.

You may have a short/broken wire with it. Good luck and let us know! You may have to replace that stretch of the cable, and most of all, make sure it's the same gauge of wire! Forgot which it is, but you could always take a piece of it.

Let us know, okay?

- Julie

IceShark

The OEM starter cable is 35mm square cross section. That is about #2 AWG (33.6mm 2) but I would use #1 AWG which is 42.4mm 2.

If you crimp, solder, seal and heatshrink the terminals you can eliminate the terminal corrosion problem. Then cover the cable with fiberglass sleeve.

I also wouldn't cable tie to the oil filler tube. That is composite and the vibration from the cable won't be good for it. I think you may even pull it out. Plus slopped oil won't be the greatest for the cable insulation.

Make a nice bend off the firewall and cable tie to the alternator/starter cable and lead down to the first rubber sheathed cable clamp on the block.

97xray

Well, I plunged forward without this awesome information, but I have some interesting updates anyway:
I ran a wire (I think 10 gauge - I thought it was large, but it certainly was NOT 32-42mm!). I ran it over to the wiper motor wiring input to the cabin, wired in, put in a kill switch, and ran it back out and down to the positive lead on the solenoid.
That did the trick, albeit slowly - the crank was hardly turning, but with my PERFECT motor (ha ha) it jumped to life anyway. (We had a dandy ride in the rain to celebrate...)

With the kill switch off, no go... so that addition definately made the difference. Hence, I DO think that there's a problem with the old 12V from the battery.

However, I'm still baffled by the instrument panel battery light being on so brightly. So in addition to the positive I ran today, I cleaned the two posts on the alternator and noted that there wasn't any corrosion. But as IceShark knows already, the brushes on the voltage regulator where relatively small (1/2 to 1/3 proper).

By the way, the 12V lead goes through this ugly tan thing as it travels to the solenoid. I cut some but not all of it away to check - the cable housing is perfect (go figure).

So from here I'm going to email IceShark and try to get a new appropriately sized positive from the battery to the solenoid, and a new voltage regulator. If that doesn't do it, I'll get the shotgun and put some holes in the damn thing!

Thanks for everyone's help!
If you have further assistance, let me know.
Jake

Tom Carson

so did you clean up all the connections as most suggested?

it sounds as if you are running +12 volts from your key switch to the starter motor (if I read this right).

starter motors have been known to draw hundreds of amps...10 gauge wire is good for...dunno...20 or 30 amps?

btw..do you have a fire extinguisher?

97xray

Yeah, fire extinguisher is present, as is a bucket of water! Let's hope it doesn't come to that!
I'm glad to know that the starter can pull upwards of 100s of amps - that explains why a little 10gauge couldn't handle it.
And yeah, at this point, I don't think there's a post or lead I've glanced at over the past two days that isn't scratched, coated with dielectric and re-connected!

IceShark

Tom C. has a good point on fire extinguisher. Required wire size also depends on how long the run is.

But our starter can draw upwards of 400 amps when it is cold and heavy oil. 10 gauge under 400 amps will likely melt pretty quick. Not get hot and glow, MELT! Melting apart will stop the problem but you better have a good harness material.

Jake, I think I can fix you up with new components fairly cheap. Will be much better than a fire.

97xray

IceShark, I sent you an email!

MHT

Jake, do you have a voltmeter? If you do check voltage drop on both pos and neg sides of the circuit. Connect pos. lead on meter to pos bat. terminal, neg lead to conn at starter (heavy feed wire), try to crank engine, if you have a reading of more than .5 volts or so then problem is between batt and starter. Check ground side as well, conn pos lead to starter body, neg lead to batt neg. terminal and crank engine, again you should have very low reading, if you have significant voltage your problem is in the ground half of the circuit. Good luck Mark T.