Wiring woes..

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sgt wilko

New Member
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36
Location
West Midlands
Hi,

After a little help, before i go out and buy new bits..

Wired up the ignition on my 3 series 2 1/4 petrol last night.

But im a little unsure if ive wired up the starter solenoid correctly, as none of it was connected when i got it, so no before pics of where everything went.

This is how i have wired it, but when i turn the key nothing.

Startersoleniod001.jpg


Any ideas??
 
That's what i tried to wire it up to that same diagram, but it shows a input from the coil and a earth from the coil, which confused me..

Any chance somebody has an actual pic of how theirs is wired..??
 
Last edited:
OK, "coil" here means the coil in the solenoid and should be fed from the ignition switch red/white wire. I don't think anything is connected to the other spade connector, the battery, alternator and main current feed to the vehicle all go on the RH post on mine. If you've got a spare spade connector with a brown wire on it it probably goes to the lower spade which should be connected to the right hand (battery lead) post. Basically, all the brown wires and the thick red one should connect together. It's also worth checking you've got a clean contact between the solenoid body and the chassis for the energising coil earth.
The feed to the ignition coil is a white wire, ignition switched live, from the back of the fusebox and doesn't go near the solenoid.
 
Looks like you've wired it up fine fella.
The Coil takes it's earth from the chassis. Check it's got a bloody good earth on the Solenoid body otherwise you'll get nothing - Solenoids are very narky when it comes to a good voltage feed.

I can't be sure, but i THINK you can push the underneath of the solenoid to bypass the IGN circuit to test it - if not:

Take the Coil feed connector- with a piece of bodge cable - to the +ve of the battery - if it clicks you know the Solenoid is actuating OK - if not take if off the bulkhead, and put the casing onto the -ve on the battery, and then use yer bodge cable to check it again - if it clicks, clean the bulkhead, and solenoid plate and remount then check again.

If it still clicks and you get nowt, run a meter on the switched side of the solenoid output ( to the starter) and check again - no output = duff solenoid.
 
Ill have to check the solenoids connection to the chassis.

Are both the spade connections on the solenoid filled or just the one that comes back from the ignition, and the coil gets its power direct from the ignition??

Having never done car electrics before im a little out of my depth.. :)
 
Last edited:
The feed from the ignition switch to the spade terminal goes live when you turn the ignition key to start. Current then flows in the solenoid coil producing a magnetic field that attracts a plunger connected to a lump of copper that bridges the two stud terminals which have the high current cables connecting the battery to the starter. It's a high current switch operated by a low current and means the ignition switch can be fairly lightly constructed.
All the other connections are to do with power generation and distribution and simply use the solenoid stud terminal as a convenient connection point to the battery live.
 
Managed to get it turning over last night, however no spark. From looking at the distributor cap it looks like it need replacing.

Hoping to pop to craddocks this week to pick new bits up..
 
It's worth checking the ignition circuit by connecting a spark plug and its HT lead direct from the coil HT outlet, opening and closing the points manually (use something non metallic) and seeing if there's a spark.
 
Thanks for your advice, i know power is getting to the centre pin of the distributor cap, but not to any of the leads going to the spark plugs.

The pins in the cap look very worn so im hoping this is the problem..

Im hoping to move past the wiring this week and move on to bolting a few more bits to the car..
 
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