BackInTheGame

I need to replace the purple and yellow/striped wires that attach to my starter. A P.O. had spliced into, and otherwise trashed them . I will be buying a small spool of both yellow (with stripe if I can find it) and purple. I have so far come up blank on the wire guages used . If anybody knows these numbers and is willing to share, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks in Advance!
Rich

oldcutlass

I would use 14Ga wire for both, just use the primary colors for the wires.

fbonanno

x2 on the #14. Just make sure it's stranded, not solid. (I'm sure you knew that). Purple, and yellow with green stripe are usually available at most Electrical Supply houses if you have trouble finding it at an auto supply store. Not sure what color stripe you have. Most likely black I would think. They may carry that too, but I've only purchased the yellow with green tracer/stripe in the past.

MDchanic

Are you guys sure that the purple "S" wire isn't 12ga?

Regardless, it's easy enough to use a wire gauge tool or a pair of strippers to determine the exact gauge of the wire, if determining it is critical.

- Eric

fbonanno

No, I'm not sure. But, for intermittent duty, which the solenoid is, 14 or 12 would be fine. 14 is good for 15A and 12 is good for 20A. And, you could take 300% of those numbers for short time use before the insulation starts to get warm/hot. That is if the insulation is THHN or even TW for that mater. To be 100% sure, you would want to put a DC amp meter in the solenoid lead under load to get a reading. You could also take an ohm reading of the coil on a known good solenoid, and divide that value into 12V to get the amperage. Thus determining the wire size. 12 or 14 gauge IMO should be just fine. Piece of mind, go 12.

oldcutlass

14ga is fine, the brunt of the starter load is on the larger power feed. All the purple wire does is supply power to the solenoid coil.

MDchanic

If I recall, when I ran my solenoid coil without the starter attached, the ammeter on my car showed 30-35 amps.

I'm sure 14ga will work, but Rich was also talking about getting the exact right wire colors, so I figured he'd want the exact right gauge.
Also, remember, the gauge is not only about the wire heating up, but also about how much resistance it will have to large current flows. A larger wire will flow large currents with less resistance.

- Eric

MDchanic

Okay, ye scurvy dogs, listen up!

I just remembered that I had a pair of starter wires sitting on the tool chest that I took off of a junkyard starter that I had dug up, that someone had de-installed by cutting the wires.
It came off of an Olds, and had the original tape wrapping on the outside and the original ring terminals on the ends.

Yellow "R" wire: 18 gauge.

Purple "S" wire: 12 gauge.

And that's the way it is.

- Eric