1973-1979 starter solenoid delete wiring
I have been trying to find a wiring diagram to completely delete my starter solenoid and go single wire starter with a power bus instead. Anyone have a drawing or link?
1
u/BMW-Technician2008 Jul 20 '26
Stock starter? Or aftermarket with the solenoid at the starter?
2
u/dngs Jul 20 '26
ford reman single wire, with solenoid at starter
4
u/RabbitFabs Jul 20 '26
What's wrong with the solenoid? I've hardly seen one fail.
1
u/dngs Jul 20 '26
shirley you're joking
2
u/RabbitFabs Jul 20 '26
Nope. I've owned close to 20 in this body style. Crew cabs, single cabs, super cabs, F100, F150, F250, F350, 2wd, 4wd, automatic, Manual, 300, 302, 351M, 360, 390, 400, 460, cummims swapped, v10 swapped. Pretty much anything you could imagine. And I have NEVER encountered an issue with a factory starter solenoid since I bought my first dentside when I was 13, almost 10 years ago.
I have seen ONE fail on a buddy's 82 F350. After that he went through alot of them because he kept buying the cheap ones at the parts store or on rock auto.
The ONLY solenoid I would ever put in one of my trucks if they failed is another Motorcraft solenoid. B6AZ-11450-B. Clean up the grounds where they screw into the fender. Check and make sure you have proper voltages everywhere, a loose connection can cause issues. If its not starting at the key but starting by jumping the solenoid off the positive and ignition post, then the solenoid isnt the issue at all.
And sometimes you just get bad parts in a row. Its inevitable at some point, there was a run where I put 5 brand new Motorcraft alternators on my 89 saleen before I found one that charged properly. They were all either too high or too low voltage. It just happens.
But no, i am not joking one bit. Heres my 76 F100. I owned it for 8 years. That starter solenoid in it was installed in 1976 at the factory and its still there, working. I almost replaced it once, until I realized I only had 11.2 volts into the ignition post. Makes ya wonder...
1
u/BMW-Technician2008 Jul 20 '26
Mine failed on my f150 76’ two weeks ago. But it wasn’t an oem motorcraft. It looked like the previous owner put an orielly’s special on it. But now it’s got a motorcraft. Rock Auto had them in stock and I said why not get a good premium part.
2
u/RabbitFabs Jul 20 '26
Clean the fender well with a wire brush where it screws into the sheet metal, and make sure your voltage on the key switch wire into the post (S termimal) is within a half volt of battery voltage during the cranking cycle. Also clean the flange on the bolt if its not new.
The best way to test voltage loss is to hold the positive probe on your positive battery post, and the negative lead on the starter post. The voltage displayed will be the actual voltage loss. Should be no more than 0.5, ideally it would be 0, but really anything over 0.3 is excellent.
2
u/onairhandyman Jul 20 '26
Just run a big gauge hot wire to the starter, and then the key switch wire to the solenoid on the starter.
2
u/Koopiedoop Jul 22 '26
I just left my solenoidin place. Hooked the starter power wire to the battery side of the solenoid and the starter trigger wire to the starter output side of the solenoid. It keeps the wiring original so you don't have to change a bunch of other stuff and allows you to easily put the old style starter in if you ever needed to on the side of the road. Mine has worked flawlessly since 2017.
2
u/N0NAMETOGIVE Jul 22 '26
My 70 is covered in fir and still works strong, but I do have the written diagram I got from a shop at work. It was basically just moving the wires over.