solenoid ground

[Bengler455]

I am with ya Joe. 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️ 1. All solenoids must have a ground. 2. It is a mini starter with one terminal 3. How did relays get brought into this? (Also requires a ground)

 

[rfpowerdude]

Relay = solenoid. Small current coil (inside relay/solenoid) causing a high current capability switch to close.

 

[rfpowerdude]

Take a look at my hand drawing and look at these examples of remote solenoids/relays.

 

[Rt Jam]

So after 10 replies we all now know this is a 1 wire starter and not the original starter which should have the solenoid on the starter.

A Ford style solenoid needs 4 connections. One from the plus side of the battery, then one down to the starter. They carry heavy current. Must be a big wire. The small wire is hot when cranking. To wire this properly the ground can not go directly to ground or it can be started in gear.

Either the plus will need to go through the safety neutral circuit or the neg which is why I do not advise to run the other small lug directly to ground.

A relay DOES need a ground to work but that is wired through a safety circuit, the body does not need to be grounded.

That relay or the body of that solenoid by rfpower does not need a ground to work.

 

[Supercharged111]

So I mounted my starter solenoid to the plastic fender liner, would a 10G wire directly to the battery be a good enough ground? Or should I go bigger? Thanks!!

You're only grounding the coil that actuates the solenoid, so 10ga to the battery should be proper overkill. If you have good bonding on the car, you could also just run it to the fender

Edit: hit reply then realized this was already covered. . .

 

[spongbob]

So I mounted my starter solenoid to the plastic fender liner, would a 10G wire directly to the battery be a good enough ground? Or should I go bigger? Thanks!!

Solonoid a 12 or even 14 guage will work fine .The load is equivalent to the windings .if you look at a Ford kicker wire its like 16 gage no reason to think the ground whitch connects the load of 12v through windings from a small wire okay ? The whole kicker circuit has not much to do with the big starter switch inside or its large cables they are isolated to the battery and starter motor (one side can malfunction while the other sides fine weird)through large cables like 10 maybe 8 guage cable, ect ,thanks for reading yes I have seen someone use a separate solonoid on a sticky existent solonoid or have some short somewhere if your not running a ford ?motor or sometimes someone's just wrong (not you!) Not discussing self grounding or separate ground pole (2wire kicker)

 

[rfpowerdude]

That relay or the body of that solenoid by rfpower does not need a ground to work.

Correct, that's what I meant. The body of SOME solenoids ARE the negative/ground return side of the activation coil. However, the ones I pictured do not need the body of the device touching ground/negative/return since they have insulated terminals.

And the comment about neutral safety switch is spot on. That is, unless you want to be able to start it in any gear or transmission selector position...

 

[Bengler455]

Perfect, thanks for all your input!!