starter solenoid

[dusterbd]

im thinking of relocating my starter solenoid to my firewall behind my drivers side cylender head. will this caus eproblems? itll be a semi-daily driver.

mike

[amxauto-x]

Why? What car? The longer wires could cause a drop in amps getting to the starter. The heat from the head could over heat the metal and burn it up. I'd leave it be. What is your reason for this move???

[451Mopar]

the "starter solenoid" is mounted directly on the starter and also engauges the flywheel gear when activated.

I think you are refering to the neutral saftey / starter relay.

The large terminal on the relay is a good connection point to connect the battery cable to the starter cable and pick up power for the dash / charging system. The relay just supplies power to the "starter solenoid" wire when the neutral safter connection (usually the brown wire with the "L" end on it) is grounded, and there is power to the "start" terminal from the ignition key (yellow wire.)

You can move the relay almost anywhere. You could run a large battery cable directly to the starter, and run a 8 AWG or 10 AWG wire to the relay. The major current flow is in the large cable going to the starter so you want a good low resistance from the battery to the starter, the current flow needed for the dash / charging system is much less so the voltage drop will not be as bad unless you have a high resistance connection or too small a wire.

[charger_dan]

Originally posted by amxauto-x
The heat from the head could over heat the metal and burn it up. I'd leave it be.

My Charger's starter relay is mounted on the firewall, stock
location, directly below the bulkhead. Do not worry about cylinder
head heat, and the difference in wire length really isn't enough
to worry about.

Personally, I always thought the A-body relay mounting point
was a nice idea. Those b-body firewalls can get pretty crowded -
especially on Chargers!

[dusterbd]

the battery is in the trunk, and i want to further clean up the engine bay wiring. so i was gonna move it to the firewall. figured i needed it (as my father said, damn engineers probably know something....) so i just wanted to put it out of the way.
so i think the consensus is, it wont hurt nothing being there. tight?
mike

[amxauto-x]

Guess not.

[jelsr]

Personally I don't care for an always "hot" wire going down to the starter. I use a Ford solenoid on the firewall and have a copper connector between the terminals on the original solenoid with just one wire to it. No power to the starter untill the top solenoid is energized.