6 replies to this topic

[josh.evans]

white wire connected on starter motor what does it do? as i found it loose?

thanks

[Dan]

There are no plain white wires connected to the starter motor. If you mean the solenoid it's either white/red or white/yellow. White/red would be the cranking connection from the ignition switch, white yellow would be cranking bypess for a ballasted ignition system. Without knowing what Mini you are talking about it's hard to say for sure.

[Ethel]

There shouldn't be a plain white wire, but the colour is irrelevant if it isn't original.

Apart from a load of brown wires using it as a convenient place to tap in to the battery cable you might find

white/red stripe - operates the solenoid when you turn the key to start
brown/red stripe - does the same if there's a relay in the circuit.
white/yellow stripe - supplies the coil on ballasted ignition systems, when the starter is spinning.

Plain white should be an unfused, ignition fed, live. It might be the one for the coil that was sometimes tucked away in the loom of ballasted ignition cars so the one loom could be used with either ignition system. If you have a pink/white wire on the coil just leave it tucked away.

[josh.evans]

i think it has a yellow stripe its a 1991 neon. what does it actually do as i have been having problems with the starter motor spinning slow is this the cause?


white/yellow stripe - supplies the coil on ballasted ignition systems, when the starter is spinning.

[Dan]

It's a non ballasted supply for the coil to use while the engine is cranking. It won't affect the starter speed to have it disconnected but will make the engine harder to start.

[Ethel]

If it is, it's an essential part of a ballasted ignition system:

When the starter motor operates it draws so much current from the battery that the voltage drops, with a regular ignition system this would lead to weak sparks at the plugs. A ballasted system adds a resistor (the ballast) so the coil always has reduced voltage and can optimised to suit. When you crank the the starter the yellow/white wire supplies battery voltage, bypassing the ballast resistance, directly to the coil - the coil sees similar voltage whether the starter is spinning or not.

[josh.evans]

i think that was my problem then?