mercruiser starter slave soleniod

Hi,
can someone please explain the purpose/function of the starter slave soleniod on the mercruiser i/o

jeff

A slave is used because of the length to get to a motor, this way 16Ga. can be used in the wiring instead of 12Ga

As BD said,

if you were not to have a slave solenoid then you would need a heavier guage wire from the key switch to the starter solenoid. This would also need a heavier duty ignition switch to handle the added amperage bigger pins in the connector etc etc etc. $$$$$$


Also by using a slave especially where it is mounted it makes for a easy place to do cranking and ignition troubleshooting from vs using a key switch maybe 20 ft away.

remember not all boats are 17 ft long. some are 30+ so the engine is a great distance away from the key switch. Good engineering practice is to keep high amperage devices away from the helm if possible. IE no more amperage guage it is now a volt meter, trim switches are low amperage switches, etc etc.