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When I went through a similar solenoid fiasco I found an old thread and followed the recommendations. Bought a echlin solenoid from Napa. I've had perfect use for about 2 years now out of mine. Only sold at Napa, make sure it says "echlin" on it as that is the high quality brand. Mine looks like the one in the pic don't know about the exact part #.
Echlin is made by SMP/Standard but are NOT Re-branded BWD bits, but proper SMP parts.
they will all melt if you sit there cranking for days....or even worse key on crank with motor trying to crank.
Proper materials don't melt, burn maybe catch fire maybe, but they will not melt no matter the heat. The proper or good quality ones use a phenolic bakelite for the housing. Phenolic Bakelites do not melt.
I dug the box out of the trash to take a closer look...brand name BWD, and you guessed it, Made in China.
When I bought it, the guy at Adv Auto Parts said it was the 'premium' part that they offered. Premium bulls***** maybe?
So I took it back get my money back. The guy at the desk tried to swap it out with a replacement so I had to point out that the damn thing is made out of plastic and literally melted off after only 3-4 cranks so no, no I don't want a replacement. Anyway, got the manager to come over and got my refund.
So I took your advice and did the following:
bought a brand new 2 AWG battery cable and real terminal
put the wire brush on my grinder wheel and buffed all the contacts on the old solenoid till they gleamed
did the same with all the wire terminals and cleaned all the gunk off the battery terminals
new nuts, washers etc
cranked right up like a dream and miraculously the original Motorcraft solenoid didn't melt!
Probably never was a thing wrong with it, just old crappy wiring and bad connections....knock on wood
I dug the box out of the trash to take a closer look...brand name BWD, and you guessed it, Made in China.
When I bought it, the guy at Adv Auto Parts said it was the 'premium' part that they offered. Premium bulls***** maybe?
So I took it back get my money back. The guy at the desk tried to swap it out with a replacement so I had to point out that the damn thing is made out of plastic and literally melted off after only 3-4 cranks so no, no I don't want a replacement. Anyway, got the manager to come over and got my refund.
So I took your advice and did the following:
bought a brand new 2 AWG battery cable and real terminal
put the wire brush on my grinder wheel and buffed all the contacts on the old solenoid till they gleamed
did the same with all the wire terminals and cleaned all the gunk off the battery terminals
new nuts, washers etc
cranked right up like a dream and miraculously the original Motorcraft solenoid didn't melt!
Probably never was a thing wrong with it, just old crappy wiring and bad connections....knock on wood
thanks for the help
Do your self a favour and pick up some electrical anti oxidant joint compound such as Noalox (available at home depot) and give the connections a light smear. Yes you have to unbolt the connection coat the terminals and do it back up but this will insure a permanent corrosion free electrically sound connection. Noalox also makes for an excellent low temp (under 500°F) thread anti seize so it has multiple uses...
That Bat cable from the battery to start relay needs to be replaced. That was the cause of you issue in the first place.
Are you thinking it was caused by a failed or corroded crimp at the relay end of the red cable? In both pics, notice the rusted external surface on that terminal, where it attaches to the relay. That suggests the terminal had been overheating in the past, bad enough to burn off any protective plating. The inside was probably even worse. Was that what you were thinking? Makes sense. The only clue that doesn't quote fit is I'd also expect to see melted insulation, too.
Are you thinking it was caused by a failed or corroded crimp at the relay end of the red cable? In both pics, notice the rusted external surface on that terminal, where it attaches to the relay. That suggests the terminal had been overheating in the past, bad enough to burn off any protective plating. The inside was probably even worse. Was that what you were thinking? Makes sense. The only clue that doesn't quote fit is I'd also expect to see melted insulation, too.
Yes the connector failed and was high resistance. Seen it more times that I can count on both automotive and on electrical installations. And if the connector it's self is bad you may not heat the cable as you sink the heat in to the bolted connection and do not heat the cable until things get really hot. On any high draw connections exposed to environmental conditions they should be coated on the mating surfaces (at minimum) with a conductive anti oxidant it will basically stop any future issues.
04-15-2019, 11:15 AM
lol
