Ford 4400 converted to Alt - burning up Solenoids - help

aczlan · Jul 30, 2017

Glad to hear it's working now.

Aaron Z

4johns · Jul 30, 2017

I do see what you were saying about the negative side of the starter relay. The short wire from the big lug on the relay to the starter was black insulated. This tricked my brain to say negative. It actually should be RED like you said. going top the starter. I see what you are saying now. Thanks.

aczlan · Jul 30, 2017

4johns said:
I do see what you were saying about the negative side of the starter relay. The short wire from the big lug on the relay to the starter was black insulated. This tricked my brain to say negative. It actually should be RED like you said. going top the starter. I see what you are saying now. Thanks.

That makes sense, sometimes they're insulated, other times they're just a solid piece of copper bar and they're not insulated.

Aaron Z

Jerry/MT · Jul 30, 2017

Dave M7040 said:
If you did this as it is written, you have possibly welded the contacts together " I removed the starter relay and with only the positive and negative cables from the battery to the big lugs."

The negative battery cable should be nowhere near the starter relay.

If you did not do this, then it is far too coincidental that a brand new relay has failed in addition to the one you thought was defective.

Something is not wired correctly. Was the relay mounting lug grounded?

How about some photos of the relay and wiring?

Dave M7040

All he's trying to do with this test is to do a continuity check on the solenoid to make sure there was no continuity without current to the solenoid coil. Apparently he found that there was continuity when there should not have been.