1978 55hp Evinrude

It started after haveing to take the control box apart, and manually manipulate the warm up lever, piece of crap, ran fine for about a mile and as I turned to look back there was smoke comming from under the cowling. Upon removing it, the smoke seemed to be comming from the solenoid area, but I think it was in part, melting the foam inside the cowling. The engine was hotter than I would expect it to be, I put a drop of water on the head and it boiled away very quickly. The incomming wire to the solenoid was warmer than normal, thinking I had a dead short, I went to take the positive terminal off of the battery and it was so hot it severely blistered my fingers. New water pump/impellers were just installed, water was pumping through it fine.
Could it be the solenoid shorted out? What are the parameters on testing the soenoid? Or is it something else? I am getting a new control box.

Thanks in advance,
Burned