Club 80-90 Forums

well more like rotted out. this is the small braided wire that is secured to solenoid rear below battery conn.it then enters starter motor through a rubber grommet. i have managed to replace it but to be honest its a bit of a bodge as it seems to be a non service item. my question is what does it do and what are the chances it will get hot? have used cable which is as thick as poss. is this cable an earth or does it carry a current.just seems a bit daft to replace starter because this wire/cable has corroded... any thoughts?

It carries the main current to the starter motor windings. I had to make one up as well.

thanks . tidy looking job.may have to have a search and find something a bit heavier duty for mine after seeing that.

This is a very common fault....as you say the braided copper wire literally turns to dust and you end up with half the amount of wires intact. This braid can carry around 140 amps on a petrol starter, 180 amps approx on a diesel, so this short braided feed needs to be in tiptop condition.

I've seen it where (after keying) this braid is loaded with solder which bridges the brakes in the wire. Alternatively that repair looks excellent but I will say you need alot of heat to get the solder to flow.

Martin

bodgit wrote: is this cable an earth or does it carry a current.

Just so you know for future reference an earth cable carries the same current as the +ve feed cable (in any circuit).

Like the live wire going to say headlight bulb would measure 4.6 Amps of current, and if you then put the meter in the wire from the bulb that goes to earth, you would still get 4.6 Amps of current.

The issue when carrying out this repair, is to get a good enough connections to carry that amount of current..from what I remember, the internal contact is folded over/crimped and soldered but as Big Herbs picture indicates...you need a lot of heat to get solder to flow with so much metal to warm up (hence the slight melted plastics) obviously care needs to be taken to ensure none of this braid comes close to catching any other part of the case or solenoid.

Martin

thanks for those replies as well.now i see why the braided cable appears to be heat sealed to rubber grommet. also yes it is crimped and soldered inside. will i need to resolder this as at present my replacement cable is simply re crimped in the place where i had to drill out old braided cable. am i right in assuming that if my new cable is not up to it i will simply have a non starter rather than a bonfire beginning to think a replacement is a better idea and more akin to my skill set. at least whilst i was doing this job i noticed how cracked the piece of fuel pipe connecting tank to bulkhead connection was and changed that

bodgit wrote:now i see why the braided cable appears to be heat sealed to rubber grommet. also yes it is crimped and soldered inside. will i need to resolder this as at present my replacement cable is simply re crimped in the place where i had to drill out old braided cable. am i right in assuming that if my new cable is not up to it i will simply have a non starter rather than a bonfire

Like I say...if either the cable or the end connections aren't up to carrying the required amperage they will become very hot and at best you will get very laboured cranking.
Soldering spreads the electrical contact over a larger area..the cable you have used needs to be at least as heavy as was used originally.

Martin

thanks. will get this looked at by a mechanic or get it replaced.it started without labouring on first turn of key but then again it always does .