Preliminary info and what I have done:



1991 T2 RX7



Fresh rebuild.



Engine turns freely. If I could get enough grip I could probably even turn it by hand.



New starter



New battery (charge it every night)



New 2 gauge negative cable from - (neg) battery post to starter solenoid. (side post style connection)



New 2 gauge Positive cable from + (pos) battery post to starter solenoid. (side post style connection)



cleaned bolt, ring terminal and the place where the ring terminal and bolt touch the chassis for the stock ground cable from top post of battery to stock chassis ground location on drivers shock tower with a rol-loc style scotch brite pad attached to a p-grinder.



added additional 2 gauge ground strap from bolt on top passengers side of tranny housing to a point on the firewall on the passenger side right beside the windshield wiper motor. also cleaned the ring terminals and points of contact with the chassis with a rol-loc style scotch brite pad attched to a p-grinder.



cleaned the points of contact between the starter housing and tranny with a rol-loc style scotch brite pad attched to a p-grinder. sprayed with brake parts cleaner to be double sure there is no grease, oil , or other residue to interfere with a solid ground



ran all the recommended tests in the FSM and Haynes Manual. The voltage is appropriate for the wire coming from the ignition switch



whenever i turn the ignition switch all i get is the click from the solenoid. Also after about 5 seconds the wires get so hot that I melted the insulation on one set of wires. (took them back and got new ones then stopped holding the switch in the start position for more than 2 seconds).



Found out today that my alternator is bad but I don't see how that could be related



Thats it. I am stumped. Open to any suggestions (not going to burn it, although I would be tempted) I am starting to think that I just don't have my wires hooked up correctly. Would someone do me a huge favor and crawl under their car and either take some pictures or give a detailed explanation or drawing of what wires go where.



Thanks everyone,



Andy Cunningham

couple things jumped out



stock negative cable goes to one of the bellhousing bolts.



if the starter just clicks, then maybe its bad?

yea the neg. cable shouldnt be going to the starter.



im guessing starter may be BOTB (aka bad out of the box) id return it under warranty and try again, been there with more then 1 customers cars.



kevin.

One of the guys I work with had a similar problem. He has a 300ZXTT and it sat for a while. When it was all put back together it wouldn’t start. Swapped out starters and still nothing, checked the cables for resistance, it was good. We connected the starter direct to a battery and it jumped off the floor. (So it was good) It ended up being the cable, it wasn’t carrying voltage (it had good resistance, *shrug*) changed it out and we had a starting car.





On my car (87 TII), under the master cylinder is a blue connector that has a wire jumping to two different pins, I have no idea what it is but I know if that wire isn’t there I don’t start....



I have also seen the starter hooked up backwards........