I'm going to throw a mini starter on my Bird tomorrow (more out of necessity then wanting to:punchballs: ). I've seen the diagram on Cool Cats ( thank you Eric!), but am wondering what gauage wiring I need. I can't measure it because the car is in the parking lot of my church.
14-16 gauge should be fine,it's just a wire to tell the solenoid to engauge and really has no amperage going through it.
I did the swap about a year or so ago.It took a while to get used to the fact that my car sounds like a Mopar when it starts.I don't mind,as long as it doesn't ever sound like a GM.
Right now I just want my car to make any sound. Thanks for the info.
I hear ya'.Bolt that thing on,add the new wire,move the original wire over one on the sylenoid,and add the new wire to the sylenoid where the original was.Done.
How long does it take your guys' cars to start? My mini starter cranks about the same amount as the old one, somewhere in the ~7-10 crank range, occasionally 2-3 when the car's warm. Of course, this is on an old and worn 5.0.
2-3 always for my car.
I'm hoping its just my old motor thats being slow. I can have as many CCA as I want, or two batteries attached, and it still starts at the same speed. All connections clean and everything (well not at the moment, I need to relocate the alternator wire as it keeps corroding my battery terminal within days). No idea how clean it is in there, but I'm sure there's a bit of sludge in places (previous owner didn't do oil changes regularly enough).
Whenever I can afford to get a new engine and have the time to install it, its new 0 and 4 gauge wires all around.
:slap: Hijacker!
Ok, I just threw a brand new starter in last night, and now it's acting up. Everytime I come to a stop and the RPMs drop below 1000, it starts shaking like a massage chair. It stops as soon as I hit the gas. Just for reference, I use one from a 97 F250 5.8L.
mini? Check your wire connections?
Yeah it is a mini, and we did have to wire it a little funny for a while, but i just fixed it and it still acts up.
make sure the gear fully disengages the flywheel
I think you have a new problem!
your shudder is not caused by your starter.
when was the last time you did a tune up? You could have got some bad gas, have a fouled plug, broke a plug wire, knocked a wire loose, etc. since it happened right after the starter swap I would assume you might have busted a plug or broke a plug wire. check all the wires and connections.
Sorry I took so long getting back to this. Wanted to check everything first.
I pulled all the plugs, and they looked fine. Checked the wires also. They are only two years old, but you never know. Cap and rotor looked a little to worn for 6 months, but not bad enough to cause this.
The reason I bring most of this up is that my vacuum manifold broke today. The left most plug snapped clean off as I was driving. Could this have caused the stumble? Also, this is the 2nd one that broke in about 3 years. Is it a common problem? Has anyone thought of making one out of sheetmetal?
Couldn't you leave the starter cable on the right side (looking at from front of sol)and just put a 12 ga jumper wire from cable lug in starter to s term on starter?
louie
You could, but:
1. 12 is pretty light for that.
2. Why build a little jumper when all you have to do is unbolt, unbolt, bolt and be done with it? Just seems like an extra job.
What I'm talking about is to leave the old starter cable on the solenoid. Run that to the mini starter and run a jumper from the cable lug on the starter to the solenoid on the starter.
this way there is no power to the new starter unless the key is in the start position.
louie
I've done the mini starter swap on my 84 T/c and I've had the same Mopar sounding start as vinniebird. I just made me a little jummper wire set up to run the sileniod on the starter. I've read over at turbo ford that if I hook up the regular starter sileniod wire to the starter and the main starter power wire dirrectly to the battery that it should sound like my ford again. I read this awhile ago. I've just been to busy to pull the car off the road to do it the new way. Maybe someone here has done it and can tell us if that really works. Mopar sound is OK but real Ford sound is the way to be.
Yes, a vacuum leak could cause a stumble. I was going to suggest you check for some kind of vacuum leak
Figured it out. Motor mount. Timing of it all was just too weird.