Starter/Battery Problem 87
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 134
Likes: 0
Starter/Battery Problem 87
Hi guys I, just purchased an 87 z51, Bought the car non running, but i got an excellent deal on it. Car needed a starter, just picked on one up and installed it earlier, today, When installing the starter, There were two ring terminals on the starter, one big ,one small, The cars wireing had three wires, 1 small black ring, 1 large black ring, 1 Large red ring. I bolt the single small wire to the small terminal, and i bolted both of the wires with larger rings, to the larger terminal. This is the only way , they can go i assume, so this is correct?
Car cranked and started up right away, in a few seconds, it did stall but thats a different issue... I Noticed as i was trying to restart the motor , the ground terminal on the battery was getting very hot, and this new battery did not have enough juice to spin the motor, after trying to charge the battery, it started to leak battery acid !
The battery could be defective, but it was used for the past 2 weeks in another car and had no problems, I could have put the starter wires in wrong? If there were in wrong, or i shorted them, would the started still work then/?
Car cranked and started up right away, in a few seconds, it did stall but thats a different issue... I Noticed as i was trying to restart the motor , the ground terminal on the battery was getting very hot, and this new battery did not have enough juice to spin the motor, after trying to charge the battery, it started to leak battery acid !
The battery could be defective, but it was used for the past 2 weeks in another car and had no problems, I could have put the starter wires in wrong? If there were in wrong, or i shorted them, would the started still work then/?
Team Owner
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 54,124
Likes: 30
From: Cincinnati, Oh USA
The electrical diagnosis book shows the purple wire to the start solenoid and the large wire from the battery positive terminal going to the starter. I do not know where the third wire goes, it may go to ground, but if it did and you connected it to the positive wire, you would have had fireworks, so you probably connected it correctly. Always pay attention to where these wires came off when you remove a part. The battery should never leak acid unless the battery was being charged with WAY excessive current which will make acid foam out of the caps. Your battery should not be charged at a rate higher than 10 amps to start and battery chargers taper off the current as the battery becomes charged.
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 134
Likes: 0
thanks for your reply, i had the wiring correct, i bought the car with no starter so i had never saw how the wires went. It seems my battery terminal connnectors, altough they looked fine, didnt provide a good connection, i cleaned them up as much as i could, and a fresh battery later, Everything seems good for now. *****: thanks.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 5,789
Likes: 8
From: Myrtle Beach SC
St. Jude Donor '05-'06
Sounds like a short to me.I know what jfb is saying but mabey one of those wires will only make the circuit with the key on.Or you may have a short somewhere else but I do not think putting a red(+12V) with a Black(ground usually) makes sense.
