Excuse my inexperience, after reading some previous threads, I know some of you got pretty good at this...

Little background:

Was in the shop tracing the wireing harness, and shorted a wire against the starter block.

The car did not start after the short. Inline Fuse (Fusable Link) is good, no obvious blown fuses.

I have been trying to get it to start by connecting the two closest terminals on the starter, but have so far only produced a "Whrrrrrrr"ing sound (It doesn't engage?)

Haven't found a junkyard that has a s30 or 280zx starter (car was L28 swapped), and am going to see a place that rebuilds starters tomorrow.

Anyways, before that, I thought I'd ask... By connecting the two terminas circled in pink, labeled (+) and (-), am I giving current to the starter in the right spot?

touch a wire from the Top pink circle to the male terminal on the cylinoid. The starter engage wire is the small Black/yellow wire that plugs into the male tab on the starter cylinoid. That tab need juice from the battery's big bolt.

When you connect the 2 pink circles, you're only running the starter motor, you're not engaging the cylinoid that moves the starter gear into the flywheel.

Dave

Null.

Edited February 24, 201015 yr by fiveleaf
continuity

by the way, the 2 bullet connectors with sleeving on each wire, that are zip-tied to the battry cable.... Go to the Transmission. They are either reverse light wires or Nuetral safety switch wires for an automatic.

You really need to figure out the rats nest you got there. You're just asking for trouble with all that hanging around.

The Battery's Ground (neg) wire should have a large ring terminal and should be bolted to the starter's upper bolt, that holds the starter to the tranny. Or to the upper bolt that holds the tranny to the engine block. And also run a ground wire from the neg post clamp to the firewall.

You got a lot of work ahead of you. But clean and seperate the mess before you even drive that car anymore. Please.

Dave

Beauty. I don't need a new starter after all.

At least the bottom nut of this starter was rusted on, which prevented me from sending it away for a rebuild.

You mean that I should be trying to start it from the (+) pink circle to the terminal that is located where this green arrow points?

I was wondering about that...

NO!!!

There is a MALE terminal on the same plate as the power wire on that solenoid. It is a small 1/4" tab that should have that black'ish wire attached to it.

Connect power from the battery (Top pink circle) to the small 1/4" flat tab (terminal)

I don't know what that green arrow is pointing at but it ain't the starter's activation terminal.

Dave

see if this makes sense.... The wire I'm pointing to is the black wire, NOT the white wire by the way.

I hate to drown this out, but I only have 4hrs/day with my love.

And much more time to think about her.

I immideatly saw the male tab in question after looking at the car again (was in the shop). It's juuuust to the left of the red circle above.

After about 30min of diagnostic, it was a bad ground. There were 3-4 of us. Too many mechanics, not enough car.

She purrs.

I also learned the joys of taking the heater core out.

Nel (my wife) is taking surprisingly well to the dash in the living room.

Thanks again! You saved me both time and money.

According to many a Z owner, That's my job!!

Glad you found it.

Dave