I don't have the battery in the trunk but did wire the starter directly to the battery (no fuse, just a big cable and plenty of care to ensure that it will be hard to short to ground) and then added a 12 AWG wire to the large aft terminal of the fender solenoid to trigger the starter solenoid.

I have not experienced any issue with this setup and it has consistently worked well.

Last edited by John Ha (7/11/2014 8:07 AM)

wsinsle wrote:

I have a wire from the battery to a terminal post, from there it goes directly to the mini starter. The wire from the start position on the key switch, goes directly to the solenoid on the mini starter. From there I use a diode to supply +12 volts to the coil during cranking. I'm thinking on going to a pertronix with 12 volt coil to avoid the diode.
 

Yep!!.....did away with my original solenoid when installing my new mini starter. Because....it has its own solenoid! Why use both?.....right? Kinda like having a switch to turn on a switch to turn something on!!!!!!!!
6sal6
 

Thank you everyone. I think the only reason I considered a fuse or circuit breaker was to retain a positive lug for a connection point to the alt and aux, so I guess that's one reason to keep the original starter relay.

The direct connect route has me wondering about the diode hook up between the ign switch and solenoid. Does the striped or cathode end go to the solenoid post with the anode to ground? This one is confusing to me because I thought the starter grounds through the starter body and the spike would bypass the diode, Also was wondering if you went with the 1N4004 or the 1N5400.

I hear you about the switch to turn on a switch etc., action and thought the redundant relays was for voltage fly back protection, but if direct connect from ign switch to solenoid with a snubbed is a go I'd like to hear how to hook that up. I run a Mallory distributor and try to be mindful of mitigating voltage spikes. If I can go straight from battery to starter and from ign switch to solenoid with a voltage snubber that's probably the way I'll go.

I just used a terminal post to eliminate the extra solenoid.





Been thinking of making some kind of cap to cover the terminal in case I drop a tool down there.

Last edited by wsinsle (7/12/2014 5:35 AM)

I like your use of 'sealtight' to run the wiring, you should consider installing "insulated bushings" on the ends to keep the exposed wiring from being cut into and causing short to ground.

wsinle - electrical supply house would be your best bet to find these.  There are two types available, one is metal w/a plastic insert, the other is all plastic.

Would someone explain to me why I nee a diode on the key switch wire?  I've have my mini starter wired with a battery cable direct to the solenoid and the the wire that triggered the fender mounted solenoid now triggers the solenoid mounted on the starter.  GM did it that way for years.  I was like Sally, why switch a switch, unless the battery is in the trunk then it makes sense! but I think a mega fuse would do just as well??? 

terry wrote:

Would someone explain to me why I nee a diode on the key switch wire?  I've have my mini starter wired with a battery cable direct to the solenoid and the the wire that triggered the fender mounted solenoid now triggers the solenoid mounted on the starter.  GM did it that way for years.  I was like Sally, why switch a switch, unless the battery is in the trunk then it makes sense! but I think a mega fuse would do just as well??? 

As I understand it, the diode is typicaly used where a relay is used.

Mechanical relays have a coil that when energized creates an electro-magnetic field. When the circuit is opened (switched off) the voltage spikes as the field collapses. The voltage spike reduces the service life of the relay as it tack welds the contacts every time it's opened, and the spike could be detrimental to other sensitive electronics.
 

Last edited by Jon Richard (7/14/2014 9:22 PM)

Mine is overly complicated, only because I'm running EFI (wanting to avoid a spike) and I wanted to not have a 1/0 gage constant hot wire running to the trunk battery.  This setup has been working well for several months now.

Last edited by JamesW (7/15/2014 6:45 PM)

JamesW wrote:

Mine is overly complicated, only because I'm running EFI (wanting to avoid a spike) and I wanted to not have a 1/0 gage constant hot wire running to the trunk battery.  This setup has been working well for several months now.

 
The diagram from your original post showed a diode with the 30a relay, did you omit it? I was also curious if you used the 1N4004 or did you go with a 1N5400?

I would realy like to find out what the starter solenoid pull in current is, it would help greatly to know if the relay from the ignition switch to the solenoid is needed.