Chevy alternator and a Ford solenoid

My Plymouth has the + alternator wire going through the + solenoid post to meet up with the battery + wire. The solenoid is slightly melted and the starter is giving me the broken solenoid clicky-clack, so I bought a new one. Before I reconnect everything and blow another solenoid, I thought I would ask if this is the best way to run the wires. It is a Chevy 350 with the 3 wires.

Thanks.

 

The alternator probably didn't fry the solenoid, it probably got hot due to a bad ground or someone cranking on the starter too long to get it to start.

You are wired properly, if you are worried you can run the hot from the alternator directly to the hot post on the battery.

 

Before you go too far try cleaning the battery terminals I still have a Chevy solenoid that I bought 40 years ago only to find out that the clicking was due to dirty battery terminals. It may not be your problem but just make sure that you are barking up the right tree.

 

Is the motor a ford or GM? If it is a GM why are you using a ford solenoid?Whenever you run current through a switch there is a voltage drop.

 

Some folks mount a Ford solenoid on the firewall to help with the SBC hot start problem eliminating or bypassing the Chevy starter solenoid.

 

The chevy starter should work without ford selinode.
Chevy has to move starter drive to work.
power wire to starter,from key to small wire on starter.

 

If it is GM the use of a Ford solenoid is to overcome a hot start problem.

 

MoeDog and PorknBeaner are correct..... Once "heat soaked", the GM starter solenoids don't function. There are myriad "How-To' articles written on the subject.

4TTRUK

 

Using a ford solenoid to overcome a GM stater problem is an old wives tail.It could be anything from warped plates in the battery to the armature dragging on the field. Amperage is heat.When things get hot they expand and warp. Griffin Auto Electric

 

Nope, not just a wives tale - it works and quite well. Millions of GMs with a ford solenoid because it works. It elimimates the voltage drop on the 12 ga purple wire and via the jumper hits the solenoid with whatever is coming down the battery cable. Heat soaked solenoid takes more juice to work.

OP, you are wired correctly as far as what you've said, there should be no current thru your solenoid during regular run conditions, only cranking. The one stud on the solenoid is acting as a junction for alt wire to battery that's it. That's the way its supposed to work. Now you may have a bad cable or connection causing heat or some other problem that you didn't say yet.

 

If the terminals at the solenoid are melting, there is a bad connection.

 

That is the correct answer. Somewhere in that line there is a high resistance an most likely right where it got hot.

As for the Ford Solenoid with GM starter and solenoid, I've run one on my 71 GMC for over a year and it has helped with hot starts. You still have to have your starter and it's solenoid in good shape. With mine I couldn't get the amps through the stock wiring to kick in the solenoid when it was hot (I have headers) and putting the Ford solenoid on seems to have eliminated that.

 

Thanks for all of the info. Any recommendations on the the gauge of wire to go from the battery terminal on the GM solenoid to the S terminal? I took off a pretty thick wire, but it had melted before I got to it.

 

There should be a flat copper jumper , its formed and drilled to fit there.
Some guys make it out of a flattened copper pipe , solid is better than wire.