Starter relay
Remember the problems I had with starting last year, and the year before that?
Well, one of the reasons that was suspected, was the starter relay (or solenoid, as some people call them). I got a used one from Ebay and put it on. Seems to work ok.
Now, here’s the old one: (or rather, what’s left of it)
Those contacts don’t seem to be pretty normal, what do you think? Think of the current flowing through here, when trying to start? There’s quite a lot of resistance right there lowering the voltage, and combined with the problems in the starter end, no wonder it didn’t want to start sometimes.
Hopefully all is ok now.
That’s worn a fair amount but pretty normal looking. Since it doesn’t have the ability to rotate like other designs it’s going to wear more at those contact points just like that because of all that current passing through it every time you push that button, and the longer it takes to start the hotter it’s going to get. I’m not sure of the material (copper alloy) but it needs to be soft enough to “clean” itself after repeated contacts otherwise it would arc and stick and hard enough to last for years, so it will wear as you see. Grant you it can cause some resistance with all the pits, but the working relays (some not) I have taken apart look just like that. I have cleaned the contacts and they usually work for a long time.
Comment by yellow blur — 11 02 09 09:26 @ 09:26