I just got my 83 LM up and running from Winter storage, put a hundred or so miles on it, pulling great - then coming back from a run I hear a NASTY whirring noise AFTER I shut engine off. The only way to stop it was to disconnect the battery. Came back the next day, reconnected the battery, no nasty noise but now the starter won't work.

I took a couple photos of the wiring in case anything's obviously wrong. There's the big boot (+) on the left terminal, a Red/White on the right terminal, a Black/Yellow on the spade connector.

Any help you guys have is really really appreciated. I've spent so much time getting this car running well since buying it in 2016 - always something else to fix!!

 

I have an 83 GSL. This is a shot of my starter wiring. I don't know the wire color under the big boot, but the spade looks black/yellow and the small boot looks like a fusible link to me.Your fusible link appears to have been replaced with a simple wire jumper. Otherwise your wiring looks correct.

Bad starter solenoid?

 

There are three wires.

1. Hot from battery - big wire with big boot
2. Trigger (thick black/yellow wire)
3. Wire that goes to the Hot Start relay. Has the smaller boot. The from the factory is the one with the fusable link. Most of the time this has been replaced with a regular wire.

Foxed.ca - Mazda RX-7 Manuals

 

VERY interesting. I actually disconnected my Hot Start Assist a while back at the spade terminal on the thing 'cause I thought it might have been flooding my carb. I've just reconnected the Hot Start Assist now and when I close my battery terminals I instantly get the NASTY whirring noise (I'm presuming that's the starter turning while unengaged?)

Is the fix to simply remove the Hot Start wire from the Starter Solenoid? I haven't been using the Hot Start and don't really care about it, I just want my Starter to work!

 

According to the 1983 wiring diagram, the hot start is routed through the fusible link wire via the hot start relay.