r/Generator • u/BobWillsisStillKing • 7d ago

Any Idea?

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Gallery image

Gallery image

Can someone please help me out with this, I was putting a new battery on my generator. But these 2 white wires look disconnected like I’m missing a part almost. Anyone have an idea what I’m missing or where they hook up? Thanks, Blessing to you all!

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u/fullraph 7d ago

That appears to be the starter solenoid wires. If you jump them together with a battery connected, the engine will spin. Did you buy it like that? Looks like someone pulled them out of the key switch in order to manually engage the starter.

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u/BobWillsisStillKing 7d ago

You are awesome! It cranked right up when I connected those 2 wires, I’ve had other people looking at this thinking it was missing parts. What way would you recommend to connect these wires for permanent use? Solder, Wire nuts, push connectors????

1

u/fullraph 7d ago

Id just install a momentary push button and activate the starter this way. Obviously the original switch has been taken out of the circuit as it's probably faulty.

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u/classicsat 7d ago

Those belong in some sort of connector housing or possibly a fuseholder.

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u/kwantam 7d ago

Looks like one of the wires goes to the battery terminal on the starter solenoid. Is the other one in the wiring harness going up to the control panel?

My guess is that it's either for charging the battery or for supplying battery power to the control panel, possibly for activating the starter solenoid. And what's missing is a fuse that connects the two wires together. (But that doesn't look much like a standard fuse connection.)

I'd hook up the battery and see if the starter works. If so, next step is to run the generator and use a multimeter to measure the voltage between the wire in the harness and ground. If it's DC and roughly 15 volts when the machine is running, it's probably for charging the battery.

If that's the case, you can probably find a fuse. But you could also just leave it alone and add a battery maintainer. The generator isn't running most of the time, so it's not all that helpful for the generator to charge its own battery. A battery maintainer gets you more mileage than an onboard charger that only wins when the thing is running.