Re: Some chest pumping and Questions . . .
Re: Some chest pumping and Questions . . .
danond said:
The starter "slave" solenoid is just another relay to help the starter kick over. If it didn't have one to start, and starts fine now, you can do without it. Chevy starters had a real issue with heat soak on old cars/trucks and couldn't spin over without the relay/solenoid being mounted somewhere else than the starter. Too close to the headers/manifolds. Ford figured this out sooner than Chevy, but both eventually went to a remote solenoid mounted up high
That is actually......................................... completely incorrect.
(i'm not a PCM guy, so i'll substitute everything with Merc)
Here's the deal with slave solenoids. The starter has a typical starter solenoid that any GM car starter has on it. The slave solenoid does not kick the starter over. The slave solenoid kicks the starter solenoid over. The starter solenoid still kicks the starter over.
It takes quite a few amps to kick that starter solenoid over.
Without it, a few amps of juice runs up the length of the boat, to the keyswitch. When you hit the key the juice runs back down the boat to the starter.
Without it... Well if you had a 20 foot boat then you need 40 feet of wire that can handle said juice. Boat builders are notorius for not using wire that's up to AWG or NMMA specs. Merc has known this for years. Now if you had a 60 foot boat then you need 120 feet of wire... so on, and so forth.
With all electrical systems, But especially low voltage DC. Voltage drops are a normal occurence in long lengths of wire (especially if the incorrect gauge is used)
If the voltage drops, and the current is available from the battery. All wires/switches in a circuit will draw more amps than the system was designed for.
Merc has no idea what engine is going into what size boat.
Keyswitches, in the long run, do not like amps, the less the better and the longer they will last.
Using a slave solenoid means this....
Power goes from the battery to the slave solenoid. Power also goes from the battery to the keyswitch. But because it takes less current to power the slave solenoid than it does the starter solenoid itself. Less current over long lengths of wire makes everything happy with smiley faces and ponys and rainbows and everything last longer.
The keyswitch and related wiring are incapable of drawing to much current. Basically it keeps higher current on the engine side of things, where Merc has figured out all the correct wire lengths and gauges. And it keeps lower current, on the boat side of things, where who knows who wired what with what.
Hope this helps
