Ok, so I attached the large black wire and the red wire to the same larger post on the starter, and the smaller, brown wire to the smaller post.

Hook up the battery via the wingnut ground in the back, turn the key, and ... nothing with the starter. Not even a click. All the other electricals are working fine.

I have just finished replacing the steering rack, the motor mounts, and the oil pan gasket. The only wires I touched were the starter wires.

So I figured maybe the battery is a little low, since this project has taken me a while. Jump starting also produced nothing at the starter.

I checked with a 12v testing light, and I do get a current at the solenoid.

And I had already cleaned the contacts at the solenoid.

Did I hook up the wires wrong? Or what?

 

Eric,

There are 3 wires in the starter harness, plus the black battery cable.

are you getting 12 v at the brown wire when ignition key is turned or all the time?

Also, have you checked your starter relay in position XIV? it's the same as the one in position XII for the horns if you can swap - remember to disconnect the battery when removing relays

You also might want to clean the two white connectors in the spare wheel well. That's where the starter relay resides. can't remember which connector, so no harm in cleaning both

 

Thanks again! I'll give it a try this weekend.

 

Eric,

I'm doing this from foggy memory, but the exact thing happened to me when I reinstalled my starter. The culprit was that there are two "small" posts on the starter and I had attached the "small" wires to the wrong "small" post.

My starter rebuilder had removed the small screw from the proper small post and I chose the wrong one when putting the wires back on. No harm, it just won't work. I should have known I was on the wrong lug because the thread pitch is slightly different between the two lugs. The proper lug is a fine pitch and the wrong one is a coarser pitch.

I may have a pic somewhere of the starter with the wires attached. I'll look and post it if I find it.

Greg

 

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Originally posted by TAREK:
<strong>You also might want to clean the two white connectors in the spare wheel well. That's where the starter relay resides. can't remember which connector, so no harm in cleaning both</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Really? First I've heard of that.

 

Randy and Eric,

I meant to say that's where the starter ground resides. Was getting ahead of myself in typing... thanks for catching this Randy

 

What Tarek MEANT to say was that the wires for the neutral safety switch on the automatics go thru the connector in the spare tire well ...

The second small connector on the starter solenoid is to furnish a full 12 vdc to the ignition system during cranking on some older models.

You can check for the proper terminal very quickly - just use a short jumper wire from the black battery cable to the small terminals. One will operate the starter, one won't. Use the one that will.

You can check the small wire, but it takes two people and a spare headlamp bulb. Hook the ground terminal of the headlamp bulb to ground, hool the yellow (may look brown on old cars, but real brown wires are always grounds on the 928) wire to one of the power terminals on the bulb and turn the switch to the start position. If the bulb lights brightly, you have power. A very dim light means a bad connection somewhere. No light means bad switch, bad start relay or transmission switch (autos only) or a bad connection somewhere. Likely places include the central power panel plug, the relay socket, and the wire cluster at the sump start terminal.

 

Thanks everyone! Looks like I have enough info to fix this one.

Greg,
Now that you mention it, I do remember seeing another screw hole for the small post. Maybe I used the wrong one. I'll do the test that Wally described.

 

I got it to finally work. All the wires were OK.

When I jumped the starter relay from socket 30 to 87 (I think), the starter worked. Then, I put the relay back in and it's worked ever since. Go figure.

Thanks everyone for the help. Now I'm off to replace the parking brakes and bleed the brakes, and then I can drive it again!