Hi-Torque Starter Install on 911T = Blown Fuses - Help!

[TargaFlorio]

Hi guys,

the stock Bosch starter on my 1968 911T clonked out so I replaced it with a Hi-torque starter.

After installing the Hi Torque starter I connected the red and black cables to the main terminal.

The two smaller yellow wires were already joined together and I connected them to one spade terminal on the Hi Torque starter.
(The original starter on my car had two spade terminals but used only one).

When I tried to start the engine nothing happened.
I tried a rolling start and the starter came to life. The engine turned over and then all of sudden all the electricity went out. No lights... no nothing...

This is my second Hi Torque starter (albeit the first one was installed on a different car and it worked just fine)

So what could have happened?

I don't think it's possible to install the starter the wrong way...

The car is a 1968 911T with a 901 transmission.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

In the dark in Las Vegas.

Cheers,
Nick.

[RoninLB]

battery positive clamp has one large cable to starter and 2 smaller ones. One of the smaller ones goes directly to ignition switch. The other small wire should go to fuse panel.

Start tracing with the easy reasons first.. battery clamps and battery ground to tub connection and trans area tub ground strap. If no go I'd probably run a spare 10ga wire from battery positive directly to ignition sw and pull the original wire off and see what happens. If ng at that point I'd probably start testing ignition sw voltage out with a 10-12watt test light instead of a volt ohm meter. VOM reading can be confusing at that point imo.

Even if you have a bad wire to fuse panel the starter should at least spin.

[TargaFlorio]

Hi Ronin,

thanks for your suggestions. I'll check it out tomorrow. It's just odd that installing a starter would do that... everything ran just fine before... except that the starter wouldn't crank once the engine was hot...

Cheers,
n.

[RoninLB]

I'm only guessing above.

and fwiw.. after 100k mi i consider the elect part of the ignition sw with one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel.

[filou]

I am also curious to how the very first starter got to burn out, the one before the HI torque. Did you turn key, cranked starter and then die on you ?? Be more specific if you could !!!
Anyway, before your rush to reconnect new starter, check for short to ground and hot ( basically both sides of "juices" for the starter: disconnect battery first, put ohmeter ( or continuity meter,
when you touch both probes leads of meter, you should get a reading of 0 zero or very close to zero, in digital meter also ) across the +and - connections for starter( starter not connected) Now turn ignition key as you would if you were about to start car. Anyreading on meter ??? If so, you have a short in your circuit.
Do that first and you can go from there. If not, now test the starter solenoid circuit. Without connecting starter, put now your meter in Voltmeter mode and connect your battery to car. Put leads of meter with their polarities, black with ground and red lead of meter to wire for solenoid of starter. Do you get a reading around 12 V ??
After those tests, give me your results.
Truly, filou.

[TargaFlorio]

Hi guys,

actually everything turned out to be fine... the Hi Torque starter that I ordered turned out to be the incorrect one for my 901 transmission.

Once I got the right starter, I installed it and everything ran fine. I cleaned the battery connections, removed and cleaned up the ground straps and now everything is just fine. I had some bad fuses, but that's because they were essentially the original ones, so as you can image, on a 38 year old car, the electrical resistance from the old copper wires can be a bit much sometimes. The copper wires from the battery cable to the battery connections was essentially rusted through... I cut off all the rusted copper wires, recrimped the battery cable and everything runs just fine now.

Thanks for all your help.

Cheers,
n.

http://nicolashunziker.com