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Mercruiser 5.7l EFI - Starter Replacement - Yellow/Purple Wire

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Longarms11

New member
Hi all - bought a 2000 Rinker Captiva 212 with a 5.7l EFI Merc in it last summer. Bought it knowing I needed a new starter, but being the new boat owner I was, I trusted a hack of a mechanic that said I didn't need an OEM starter so I trusted him to replace with aftermarket. Long story short, just replaced my POS aftermarket with an OEM (thank god I'm 6'5" and lanky and had a friend that could help).

One thing I noticed when swapping these out is that I was not seeing a yellow/purple wire like I've read on many other posts and have seen in the wiring diagrams. Is this something that my boat should have and that I need to just look harder for to see where it might be tied up at? Or is this something only certain models have?

I've noticed that my first time starting the boat after sitting for a day or more, it takes anywhere from 2-4 seconds of cranking before it fires up (still the case after my first start with the new OEM starter). It appears the yellow/purple wire helps build up the oil pressure faster, which could lead to a faster start-up, so I wanted to make sure that I didn't burn out my new OEM starter as fast as I did the aftermarket. Let me know if anyone has any specific knowledge.

Thanks!
 
Longarms11 said:
I've noticed that my first time starting the boat after sitting for a day or more, it takes anywhere from 2-4 seconds of cranking before it fires up (still the case after my first start with the new OEM starter). It appears the yellow/purple wire helps build up the oil pressure faster, which could lead to a faster start-up, so I wanted to make sure that I didn't burn out my new OEM starter as fast as I did the aftermarket. Let me know if anyone has any specific knowledge.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Your engine oil pump is driven by the lower end of the ignition distributor, of which is driven by the camshaft.
In other words, actual oil pressure is not influenced by anything electrical.
 
Assuming your engine description is accurate, you won't have the "PUR/YEL" wire near your starter....as far as wiring diagrams goes, trust only the factory service data...and then with a grain of salt.

your start up issues could be due to non-optimal technique....
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. To clarify, the engine does start-up in a half second the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. time of the day. It's just that initial cold start-up. Just wanted to check around and make sure that someone wasn't aware of a specific issue this *could* be.
 
makomark said:
Assuming your engine description is accurate, you won't have the "PUR/YEL" wire near your starter....as far as wiring diagrams goes, trust only the factory service data...and then with a grain of salt.

your start up issues could be due to non-optimal technique....
Click to expand...

You're very much correct on not having a purple/yellow wire. Realized I was looking at an incorrect diagram. Finally found the correct one for my EFI and sure enough there's no purple/yellow wire. Thanks for the input!
 
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