Alright guys-figured it out, this is going to be a long post. Not necessarily just for everyone that helped but also people that are not members that still get these threads as a response to their google searches.
I searched probably hundreds of posts (not on iboats)and seen many people having the same issue as I did, without any results. I started thinking that the parts store wasn’t matching the exact solenoid like they promised they were. Looking through the specs the main differences were the amps needed to pass power and grounding. I tried grounding the base in addition to the terminal and had no luck. I finally found someone who said everything I had suspected. You can use certain automotive solenoids but you have to rig up the ground to ground through the base. They said it was somewhat of a hassle.
The amps needed were higher for the automotive solenoid but still doable from my understanding. The coils supposedly provided more resistance than the marine solenoid. I ordered the exact match online wired it up and works perfectly.
For the record, I feel like I ran across a huge number of posts telling people that an automotive solenoid was exactly the same and wired up the exact same way. So for everyone that is coming across this because you can’t figure it out, I hope to save ya’ll the headache of a several hrs of being stumped. Buy the marine solenoid regardless of what the parts guys and online gurus tell you. Thanks to everyone on here for all the advice and help. Y’all were great!
