Midlife

A poster on the concours Mustang site said he had a bad starter solenoid and opened it up to see how it worked. He found an 18 gauge wire hooked to the I post internally. Yikes! It's a wonder that starter solenoids don't have reliability issues like turn signal switches, horns, or points.

I think it does happen more often, but I think folks won't say so on the Internet due to embarrassment. This also is a big problem with the AMK Concours Starter Solenoid, which has the sticking problem and should be avoided at all costs.

My middle name is Carnack...

Well, to be technically accurate, the pink resistor wire is also a voltage regulator. In fact, it is a self-regulating current-choke in that the more current that passes through it, its resistance increases, which decreases the voltage and current passing through it. A very clever device indeed.

I had a customer just 2 weeks ago that fried a wire at the starter solenoid. What was unusual was that it was the I (Ignition) line, typically brown or red/green. First time I heard of this problem in 13 years of working on harnesses. Scratched my head a bit, and came up with a reason, but I wasn't too happy with the explanation. This line burned half-way through the harness. Yesterday, another customer called me with the identical problem! After some back and forth, he confirmed that it was the I line that got fried. This one got fried all the way to the connector to the underdash harness. What is further unusual, is that both were 1967's (Yes, this is a 69/70 forum but hold that thought...) Both customers had starting problems: #1 ran out of gas, and cranked the car excessively trying to get it to start. #2 cranked the car, but the starter solenoid stuck (welded itself inside the solenoid). Hmmm...a clue here! Both cases had the wire insulation burn as though it was a short. But...that line goes to the coil, so there shouldn't be a short when one is sending 12V to the coil. But there is...the coil is only 1.5 to 0.6 ohms (depending upon model) and from there it goes to the points. Now then, the points are closed (grounded) 7/8ths of the time, and 1/8th of the time they open allowing high voltage to leak from the coil to the spark plugs. The majority of the time, the points act as a ground. Aha! Sending 12V through a 1.5 ohm system yields 8 amps of current through an 18 gauge wire, enough to cause the wire to get hot and insulation to burn off. So there you have it...the reason why one is told not to excessively crank the starter is not related to the starter or the battery, but to prevent excessive current from passing through a thin wire for longer than a couple of seconds. This is also the reason why aftermarket ignition systems want to use 14 or lower gauge wires from the I post to their system. And this has nothing to do with the year Mustang: they all will exhibit this problem if the starter sticks or you crank the car excessively at one time. I bet you didn't know this, eh?

Please do not shake the container of DOT 5: it is highly susceptible to entrained bubbles.

What are extractors? What we call easy-outs?

Sell your products a free-range, organic and charge a 25% premium!

RR: if your shop is dirty and got tools laying around on the floor, no wonder you're a year behind in work!

It's been awfully quiet on the forum lately. We need some chatter. It looks like I bought a house here in Tucson. 4 beds, 2 bath, 3 car garage. Situated at the edge of the complex, looking out at about 20 miles of desert before a mountain range, not a building in sight. About 3 miles from the Casino. My best friend, who used to live in Panama City, moved to Tucson a year ago, and he's about 1.5 miles up the road. We used to get together once a month and swap tall tales and drink all afternoon. Looks like that's going to happen more now. Other interesting news: 1970 Mustang harnesses suddenly has become hot. Usually, I see twice as many 69's and 70's, but this year, I've done 7 70's and 2 69's. I just past 750 underdash harnesses, having started in 2008. It snowed twice in Tucson this winter, the last time last Saturday! The scenery is gorgeous: snow capped mountains just a couple miles away. As I'm typing this, a major tornado outbreak is occurring in the south, close to where I used to live. Now, I don't worry about that at all. Did everyone have Corned Beef and Cabbage tonight? Yum!

I just got a 70 harness in with a convenience group harness. The power for it is a male pin with a female pigtail, identified in the Ford schematics/wiring diagrams for the Power Top. So yes, you can get this with a convertible.

The replies on the concours site suggest that there is no unique starter solenoid for 64.5, although the body was brown for that year. No reason to think another starter solenoid wouldn't work.

I've posted in the concours Mustang forum. If anyone knows of a unique 64.5 starter solenoid application, they would.

The starter solenoid has nothing to do with the charging system (generator vice alternator). I don't see why it shouldn't work.

There's very little difference between solenoids. The concours crowd has brown ones for very early Mustangs (now being discredited). The changes are very subtle and are probably not noticeable by the their performance, as far as I know. I suspect the later ones are somewhat more reliable, or maybe that was the intent. <<<speculation on my part...

You can also find good ones at junk yards specializing in older cars. Rarely are these removed by scavengers.

DooDooDoDooo (think the Twilight Zone theme here...)

In the center console cup holders, of course! Oh, and under the seat when the car with the flashing blue lights follows you.

The only way to repair a bad pin at the ignition switch connector itself is to replace the connector with pigtails. You can't just remove the pins (bad design for sure!).

Violet wire ends up either at the ignition switch connector or at an OEM splice just above the ignition switch plug. On almost all harnesses that I refurbish, I find higher resistance at the dash cluster connector, and 90% of the time, resistance drops to 9.5 ohms or so after recrimping the pin. The other 10% are resolved by tugging on the violet wire at the OEM splice or the ignition switch connector (69's can be recrimped; 70's cannot).

+1. Violet wire will be 12V if dash cluster connector disconnected from dash.

Don't you think those poor folks in TX need a heater right now more than you do?

Fake news! I said it as fake news, folks! Nothing to see here...move along...

Hell, he can't even remember his name or when he's supposed to see his Parole Officer...