starter solenoid meltdown

[painter]

I have had my 86 Aspencade for 3 yrs now and the black plastic plug that goes into the solenoid has melted down twice now making it unable to start unless I hook each wire seperately which I have done directly to the solenoid. My question is what could be causing the mainly the positive wires to heat up and melt the plug?

[julimike54]

The melting could come from too much corrosion on the electrical connections or is it possible the starter is pulling too much amperage and needs to be cleaned out and lubed?

[WingAdmin]

Anytime there is resistance to electrical current, you get heat. That's how electric heaters work: the heating element is one big resistor. Run current through it, you get heat.

Wherever there are connectors, if the connection between the connectors is not perfectly clean, you will get resistance. The more dirt, grease, corrosion, or anything other than the connector surface gets in the way, you get resistance. When you run high current (i.e. starter) through it, it heats up. The more it heats up, the worse the corrosion and contamination gets. The worse the corrosion and contamination, the more resistance. Eventually things just melt.

This is also the cause of the melting stator connectors on the four-cylinder Wings.