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General starter solenoid question

Smute

Smute

Member
Are the two BIG terminals on a solenoid different, i.e., one must connect to the battery and switch, and the other must connect to the starter? Or are they reversible? I hate to do a trial and error check lest it damage the solenoid.

Thanks for any input.
 
The two large terminals are the contacts as long as you put the ignition wire on the battery side it will work the same. If you put the ignition switch wire on the starter side nothing will happen. The two small wires are for the coil and will also work reversed. One goes to ground and the other is the start wire from the ignition switch through the neutral safety switch.
 
I want to replace the starter solenoid: from the existing one that has 2 large terminals and 2 small terminals; to a new one that has 2 large and only 1 small terminal.

I'm choosing to do the replacement because I've never felt confident that the existing one was wired "correctly" (even though it worked); and accordingly the instructions in the SELOC manual for testing the starter solenoid and other attached things didn't seem to make sense and left me unsure of the result I was getting in the test procedures. A big question in this regard was which of the 2 small terminals was the correct one for the wire returning from the starter switch.

So my homegrown approach was to get a the new solenoid with only 1 small terminal and no doubt where the wire returning from the starter switch goes. But that still left me unsure of which of the 2 large terminals went where. Solenoids don't come with wiring instructions.

With your two responses above I think I can sort through this, even with the 4 terminal starter solenoid. I just didn't want to ruin a solenoid by mis-wiring the two large terminals.

Thank you for your inputs.​
 
Do yourself a big favor and get the correct solenoid. And stay away from the auto parts store. A car solenoid is different inside.
 
Roger that. Judging by MarineEngines.com the one on there now is an after-market Sierra for Mercury/Mariner; and the one that I’m replacing it with is original OMC. It’s a 1975 Johnson 15hp Seahorse that I’m servicing.
Thanks

[FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot]BTW, here’s a bit further reflection on my old motor. It wouldn’t hardly start much less run well this year. So I turned to the old outboard repair guy who knows everything. After searching for the problem in the armature plate, points, coils, fly wheel, etc., etc. and unable to nail it down, he pulled out his bag of tricks and old motor parts graveyard, and totally changed out the points system to capacitor discharge ignition. It runs like a new motor now (except for the solenoid issue). I would turn to him again but he’s too busy.[/FONT][/FONT]
 
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