RE: [ihc] 74/75 Starters Update to clarify

["Mac McMuffin" <mac@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

## >> Doesn't the high-amp solution just take the two delco
## >> solenoid terminals
## >> and tie them together, and take that 0-GA lead and run it to the Ford
## >> solenoid from the battery? and activate the Ford solenoid with the
## >> Start-terminal wire from the Delco solenoid?
## >> Now, I see what Allan means about drawing it easier than the write up.
## >> Sounds like you can draw the schem. on your hand, on the fly.
## >> then wire it up?
## >>
## >> Is it really that easy?
## >>
## >> JoelB

my understanding is that it is in fact that easy.  there are three or four
of these solenoids under the hood of my 1110 TravelAll, and that's how all
of them are wired.  direct juice from the battery in thick cables to the
solenoid input pole, direct from the solenoid output pole to whatever device
needs power using equally thick cables...  and a relatively thin cable from
the solenoid activation pole to whatever switch activates the solenoid.
seems very simple to me in concept, and in my setup it really is, despite
the wiring mess surrounding this specific very well laid out and implemented
electrical subsystem.

my secondary battery has a really heavy jumper cable going from it to the
primary battery, with one of these solenoids in the middle and a jumper
switch under the dash.  if i need extra juice at the primary, i flip that
switch and away i go, both batteries' combined amperage at about 13 volts or
so.  i have to make sure to flip the switch back off when i'm not using it,
though, because otherwise the solenoid kind of melts closed and then i can't
shut it off, and the whole solenoid gets really hot and melts its housing.
had that happen three times now.  each time, i needed the extra power to
jump a dead primary battery (left the lights on), and then forgot to switch
the jumper back off, parked it and shut down...  and with the switch left
on, bad stuff happened.

no, i don't use one of these solenoids for the actual starter.  i've got a
nice heavy pushbutton momentary switch in all of my IH trucks' dashes
running to the starter, bypassing the keyswitch.  i've found that i don't
need a Ford-type solenoid with this method.  makes the starter removal and
installation a little more complicated with the extra wiring, but i don't
mind that.  i do like having the starter button instead of the key.  my 1010
came to me with one of these installed, and i liked it so much i did the
rest just like it.  took forever to find a place that sold 30-amp steel
pushbuttons like the one in the 1010, too.  right offhand i don't remember
where i got them.  probably Fresno Ag Hardware, i think.

my usual nickel and the usual grain of salt disclaimers apply.

--Mac

P.S.:  incidentally, the secondary battery in this thing is only wired to
the front and rear overhead lights and that jumper circuit, and both
batteries are on a very nice electronic isolator.  from the looks of things,
the PO/PPO wanted to be able to run the big overheads with the engine off
without draining the primary battery, and didn't want any of the rest of the
electrical systems hooked to that battery.  appears to be a pretty solid
setup.  it's a spaghetti mess of wiring under that hood (nearly all for the
electronic ignition and fuel injection systems), but now that i understand
how it all works, i can continue sorting through it and shortening the wires
to a more manageable and less spaghetti-like arrangement.  unfortunately the
isolator does not appear to be working the way it should (as it did when we
got it), though i am not sure why, i think it's a wiring fault, and i'm
still slowly sorting through the spaghetti to find and solve it.  okay now i
really am done writing.  +)

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Krystof "Mac" MacBryghde
TyrGothi

http://master.triad.ath.cx/