Just my 2 cents on the solenoid discussion.

“…..If the engineers at GM thought that by adding a Ford solenoid in series with a GM starter and solenoid would work better I'm sure they would have done so years ago……”

Ken as I recall at one time GM did sell remote solenoid kits for hot start issues over the parts counter……of course that was at least 20 years ago.

I run a Ford solenoid on a lot of the stuff I build especially GMs. The experience I’ve had with heat soak issues on GMs (especially Chevrolets from the 50s-70s) is that when it heat soaks you can still short across the battery lead and solenoid terminals at the starter and it will crank. This has always lead me to the belief that while a heat soaked solenoid (higher resistance to activate) is partially the problem the main issue is higher resistance in the wire that activates the solenoid.

I’ve tried running a heavier solenoid activation wire to the starter on a few occasions and only had mixed results. Using the remote solenoid has always eliminated any heat soak non-crank issues I’ve run into. When I wire the Ford style solenoid I run a busbar/heavy jumper wire between the Solenoid terminal and battery terminal on the starter and relocate the solenoid wire/charging wires and battery cable to the Ford solenoid. Basically when the remote solenoid is activated the solenoid on the starter will receive full voltage/amperage thru the busbar/jumper wire.

Of course there are a few other benefits. It makes a convenient place to hook up a remote starter switch when you need to crank the engine over, it eliminates having a live battery cable running down by the exhaust and you only have the battery cable to remove when you need to remove the starter.

Anyway like I said just my 2 cents.



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