Starter engaged w/o ign. key on!

[t5montecarlo]

This thread reminds me of a case presented to NPR's Car Talk. A woman called and said their Porsche had moved in their driveway. It was locked and in reverse. It was not moved by a teenager. It turned out that a rodent had chewed wires and the starter wire was able to touch the battery cable. The starter engaged and the car moved in reverse for about 10 feet.

 

[Ed Cannon]

Did you bolt the solenoid down to a good ground? Also make sure your chassis ground is good.

 

[CHimp66]

Ed Cannon, a ground wire from the neg post to the inner fender, the thick gauge neg battery cable to the engine block, the remote solenoid is supposed to be grounded just by bolting it againt bare metal, but I ran a ground wire from the remote solenoid bracket screw to the bolt that has the neg battery ground on the inner fender. Plus the ground from the firewall to the block.... I took a wire brush to all of the surfaces, including the starter and the block where the starter mounts to it. I unscrewed the fuse box from the engine wire bulkhead under the dash (floorboard) to see if anything was wrong there and all of the wires are connected tight. The wires on the floorboard going out to the engine compartment look tight, also.

 

[CHimp66]

So I connected the ignition wire and pos battery cable to the starter as it came from the factory, minus the ignition coil wire. (I have HEI) Turned the key and the starter turned the engine over. I tried to crank it a few times, but got a puff og smoke and stopped. So the ignition wire is NOT the issue. Could it be that my brand new continuous duty solenoid isn't on duty anymore....? :-k

What about grounding the starter via the neg post on the battery?

How can I test the remote solenoid?

 

[CHimp66]

Ok! I did more digging and added a ground wire from the "I" terminal on the remote solenoid to the inner fender. Turned the key and she turned over! dancin_banana.gif
It backfired, so I stopped trying to crank it. Timing still needs to be set....

So you need to have it grounded by the body of the solenoid (to the mounting area---> inner fender wall). This was actually in the instructions. PLUS, run a ground to the small terminal ("I") that, from all of the instructions I've read, says is for the ignition coil wire..... Will a moderator please edit the remote starter solenoid topic with this small but major piece of information? Thanks to all that offered help!!

 

[gman415]

hhmmm.... My "I" terminal has no wire.

 

[CHimp66]

It wouldn't. I made a ground wire and connected it to the "I" terminal and then to a ground location.