Hi torque motor wiring/diagrams

[martinbrowning]

Hi ,

I have recently bought a high torque starter motor; the plan is to fit it to my Europa Special as a trial and, if happy, buy another for my S130 in rebuild. Question is however that the connections are different (fewer) than the Lucas original.
There is a post connection to which the main feed from the battery is connected(obvious) but there is another wire from the ignition switch that,on the Lucas unit,is connected to a spade terminal on theback of the solenoid. There is not a similar spade on the high torque unit other than one spade terminal which is also connected by external wire to the main feed post.The manufacturer says that my ignition switch connection should be connected to it- but that effectively puts ALL wires/connections to the same terminal.
Is that right? I don't want to connect it up and on starting see ?20K of Europa melt in front of me.........

On a similar vein, can anybody explain the protocols behind the numbering of the ignition switch terminals as shown in the Lotus wiring diagrams, and how do they equate to "I,II,III" etc on the front of my Plus 2 ignition switch.

Reagards to all

Martin B

[RotoFlexible]

That is a puzzlement. The Gustafson starter I recently installed has a post for the battery feed, and a spade terminal for the white/red wire from the ignition switch. You can eliminate the solenoid using this setup. (Normally the white/red wire goes to the solenoid.)

The fact that your spade terminal is wired to the battery feed post suggests that your starter is set up to be used with an external solenoid, not wired directly to the battery. When the solenoid closes and supplies power to both terminals, the starter operates. But the instructions suggest differently.

If you wire the battery directly to the starter, be sure to remove the "external wire" first - otherwise you may experience startus uninterruptabilis. A bench test with jumper cables prior to installation should answer any questions about how the starter operates.

[paddy]

Either the starter has an internal solenoid or it doesn't.

If it has an internal solenoid, then there would be two terminals:

- one, low capacity, from the "III" position of the ignition switch, to power the internal solenoid;
- the other, high capacity, to take power directly from the battery with no intervening solenoid.

If it doesn't have an internal solenoid, there is only need for one terminal, high capacity, with the switched supply from the external solenoid. However, in this case, some starters seemingly also have an additional terminal, wired to the high capacity terminal, which can be used for a wire to go to the +ve terminal of the coil to bypass a ballast resistor if there is one.

If it's intended for use with an external solenoid, it's fine to connect nothing to that extra terminal. (Either you don't have a ballast resistor, or there's an alternative wiring for it.)

Paddy

[martinbrowning]

Paddy,Andrew,
Many thanks for your replies and help. I have contacted the supplier by phone and problem solved.The external wire from the main feed post to the spade terminal is used where the car has a remote solenoid.The Europa has a solenoid attached to the side of the starter.Therefore,remove the external link wire and problem solved.

Many thanks again for your help.

Martin B