jaluhn83
Full Access Member
Been having problems recently with a worn spot on the ring gear and the starter grinding but I've managed to get a workable solution using a second starter solenoid as a relay.
The standard starter setup uses the solenoid to pull the starter pinion partially into engagement with the ring gear and then also has a relay section in the back that closes to apply power to the motor. Problem comes with a worn ring gear when the relay closes before the pinion is sufficiently meshed leading to a nasty grinding and incidentally making the problem worse by taking more off the gear teeth. Needless to say this can become quite frustrating.
I had previously had some luck machining the solenoid plunger so that it has more travel before closing the relay, but there is limited room to work given that the return spring also fits behind the plunger and is nearly completely compressed with the plunger at full travel - this results in the plunger bottoming out on the spring before closing the relay and renders the starter non functional. IIRC I actually wound up clipping 1-2 coils off the spring to get it to work, but this has the undesirable side effect of reducing the return spring force.
The setup I have now gone with uses a standard (unmodified) starter and solenoid with an additional solenoid mounted directly below the starter solenoid acting solely as a relay in the main battery cable. This 'solenoid' is wired to a separate switch so that the stock starter solenoid acts primarily to engage the pinion fully and only then is power applied to the motor. By using a standard IDI 'solenoid' as the relay installed directly below the starter solenoid, the stock battery cable is used unmodified, with the only change being an additional independent starter relay wire being added. The connection between the 'relay' and the starter solenoid was made with 2 copper wire terminals, one #2/0 & one #2 - the #2 barrel fits within the #2/0 barrel, and is soldered together. Luckily this also works out to about the exact correct length, the relay also being supported with a number of zip ties. The relay contacts within the solenoid rear housing has it's own return spring, so the large solenoid plunger return spring can be removed making it much easier to retain the plunger - a zip tie would probably be sufficient. I made a cap from a 1-1/4" pipe cap primarily to acts as a dust seal. It also allow for the connection of a ground wire - the solenoid grounds through it's housing, so a ground wire is required for reliable operation.
The other part of the project is control of the relay. The relay should close sometime shortly after the solenoid is activated. This can be done fairly easily with the time delay relay off the main starter relay (on the fender) set with something a 1 second delay (estimated). Or you can wire it to a separate switch somewhere if you want to really confuse anyone that tries to borrow your truck.
In my case, it's wired to the electric fan/ intercooler pump switch, mainly because my home brew time delay relay circuit failed and it was the closest wire. ;p
So far it has proven to work well - no nasty gear grinding (though admittedly I also installed a new starter so it's possible that helped as well) and it still starts fine. One concern that was raised at one point on here IIRC was the thought that the starter needed to be spinning when engaged to build momentum - using the split relay setup would defeat this and there was thought that it would cause slow starting. I see no evidence of this and the starter turns over as strong as ever.
The standard starter setup uses the solenoid to pull the starter pinion partially into engagement with the ring gear and then also has a relay section in the back that closes to apply power to the motor. Problem comes with a worn ring gear when the relay closes before the pinion is sufficiently meshed leading to a nasty grinding and incidentally making the problem worse by taking more off the gear teeth. Needless to say this can become quite frustrating.
I had previously had some luck machining the solenoid plunger so that it has more travel before closing the relay, but there is limited room to work given that the return spring also fits behind the plunger and is nearly completely compressed with the plunger at full travel - this results in the plunger bottoming out on the spring before closing the relay and renders the starter non functional. IIRC I actually wound up clipping 1-2 coils off the spring to get it to work, but this has the undesirable side effect of reducing the return spring force.
The setup I have now gone with uses a standard (unmodified) starter and solenoid with an additional solenoid mounted directly below the starter solenoid acting solely as a relay in the main battery cable. This 'solenoid' is wired to a separate switch so that the stock starter solenoid acts primarily to engage the pinion fully and only then is power applied to the motor. By using a standard IDI 'solenoid' as the relay installed directly below the starter solenoid, the stock battery cable is used unmodified, with the only change being an additional independent starter relay wire being added. The connection between the 'relay' and the starter solenoid was made with 2 copper wire terminals, one #2/0 & one #2 - the #2 barrel fits within the #2/0 barrel, and is soldered together. Luckily this also works out to about the exact correct length, the relay also being supported with a number of zip ties. The relay contacts within the solenoid rear housing has it's own return spring, so the large solenoid plunger return spring can be removed making it much easier to retain the plunger - a zip tie would probably be sufficient. I made a cap from a 1-1/4" pipe cap primarily to acts as a dust seal. It also allow for the connection of a ground wire - the solenoid grounds through it's housing, so a ground wire is required for reliable operation.
The other part of the project is control of the relay. The relay should close sometime shortly after the solenoid is activated. This can be done fairly easily with the time delay relay off the main starter relay (on the fender) set with something a 1 second delay (estimated). Or you can wire it to a separate switch somewhere if you want to really confuse anyone that tries to borrow your truck.
In my case, it's wired to the electric fan/ intercooler pump switch, mainly because my home brew time delay relay circuit failed and it was the closest wire. ;pSo far it has proven to work well - no nasty gear grinding (though admittedly I also installed a new starter so it's possible that helped as well) and it still starts fine. One concern that was raised at one point on here IIRC was the thought that the starter needed to be spinning when engaged to build momentum - using the split relay setup would defeat this and there was thought that it would cause slow starting. I see no evidence of this and the starter turns over as strong as ever.
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