how many wires go to your starter?

[krazykraut]

I have now looked at three different e30's and two of them have different wiring going to the starter???

There should be:

1. Positive lead coming from the battery.
2. positive lead from engine harness
3. negative lead from wiring harness


4. small black wire?? (maybe leads to DME ?) present on an '89, but not so on an '86 (eta).....
**I do not have this small wire on my 87' (325i)**

I have an '88 engine harness and it has this small wire

Do all the terminal posts on the starter get used?? I know that both the battery positive and engine harness positive share a terminal.

If anyone can comment or show pics of their starter's wiring, it would be appreciated.

[jlevie]

How many wires go the the starter, and the required starter depends on when the car was built. Prior to 8/87 the starters all had two lugs. Once for primary power and one for the starter solenoid. Beginning with 9/87 production the starters have three lugs (and wires). One for primary power, one for the starter solenoid and one to control the unloader relays.

[2.5-12]

you can ignore the top wire on the 1.4kW 88+ starter, they work fine.

[krazykraut]

ok thanks, just trying to rule out spark issues...I've gone through the process of checking and swapping out everything, except the engine harness...

swapped out DME (power is coming to dme)
No voltage coming to coil
checked fuse link in trunk (1 ft up the positive wire) it is good
main relay (white one of the three) checked and swapped
replaced CPS

I had one fuse that was blown in the miniature fuse box, which is located next to the larger fuse box....replaced the fuse and still nothing.....fuse did not blow again

Jlevie- suggested the C101...all that i was able to do at this time was try to make sure the contact points at the connection were clean...


My next step was going to try and replace the engine harness, but I dont think that be my cause....Im kinda out of ideas as what it could be,

the car was running when i rebuilt the engine, just had no compression cause of a hole in the valve. Took engine out, refreshed bearings, hoses, threw a lower mileage cylinder head on, and reinstalled engine.

Other than that none of the electricals were touched, although the previous owner had a thing for cutting out electrical components that did not work. **the car i believe had a position sensor(not the CPS) but another sensor that read at the crank** i was told that the car does not need it to run, but that could be a possibility

[hotballs]

You have an 87 325i with an 88 harness? You shouldn't have to use that small black wire. I believe it would connect on a top terminal of a later model starter, but not sure. I made this image to remind me and everyone where that black/yellow wire goes. Anyone can jump in and tell me if there is something wrong with that diagram.

[jlevie]

ok thanks, just trying to rule out spark issues...I've gone through the process of checking and swapping out everything, except the engine harness...

swapped out DME (power is coming to dme)
No voltage coming to coil
checked fuse link in trunk (1 ft up the positive wire) it is good
main relay (white one of the three) checked and swapped
replaced CPS

Coil power comes from the ignition switch via C101. If you don't have power to the coil trace back to/through C101. There are some splices in the harness that can cause trouble. The fix for that is to open up the harness, solder the splices and re-insulate.

It isn't clear to me what car you have and what harness you are using. If the car was built before 8/87, you can't swap in a 9/87 or later harness w/o modifying the harness. In a like manner you can't use a 9/86-8/87 harness on a later car w/o modifications.

[krazykraut]

"It isn't clear to me what car you have and what harness you are using. If the car was built before 8/87, you can't swap in a 9/87 or later harness w/o modifying the harness. In a like manner you can't use a 9/86-8/87 harness on a later car w/o modifications. " ~Jlevie

My car has a build date of 12/86 and it has its original harness. I was only using an extra/parts '88 harness for reference in order to trace any wires that I could be missing, (since the PO had cut many wires that went to fog lights, abs, etc...The car still ran correctly though when everything was connected before I rebuilt the engine)

My next step I guess will be to pull the engine harness off, and try to sort through it.

Thanks Jlevie for the info!! Ill work on it over the weekend and hopefully I can figure it out.

[jlevie]

Now I understand.

Before you pull the harness Check for power at C101 pin 7 and check for continuity from that pin to the coil positive (disconnect both ends first).

It is possible to modify your 88 harness to be able to use it to replace your 86 harness. But if all that's wrong is a bad splice in the harness it may be easier to repair the harness you have.

[2mAn]

Bumping this back up.

Im helping a friend with a 2.7i swap. Wiring harness is the later style, but the starter is from the eta ('86 MY).

The starter is like the picture above, wiring has a big red which Ive connected to the big post, theres a smaller black/green wire and a solid black wire. From the pic above, the black wire should go to the spade terminal, but not sure what or where the black/green wire should go.

[bostonvert]

Another bump

So nothing is attached to the top spade connecter, right? Just the bottom one black/yellow