Re: 6v starter solenoid bypass relay

[stans4@ibm.net (Stan Schaefer)]

I have one of these setups on my  '71.  The only problem I've had was
the original cheap relay got loose from sitting on the transaxle cover
and the center coil rivet got loose.  Since this grounded the coil, I
had some failures to turn over.  Replacing the relay solved that.  Is
this wahat you mean by hard starting, failure to turn the engine over?
The starter's still going to suck the same amount of current, it's
just not going through the ignition switch and about 15' of wire.  The
path is much shorter, so there's less resistance and voltage drop to
the starter.  If it just cranks and cranks, look elsewhere. Look
at(dare I say it?) plug wires, timing, compression, possibly carb bowl
boil-over if hot starts are the problem.  One thing to try is to take
the coil wire off at the distributor cap end and manually open and
close the points with a screwdriver and look at the spark you get when
you hold the end of the wire close to a grounded part, like the
generator.  If your spark is feeble, you've found a problem and need
to do something with the electrical system.  If it's fat and white,
look at your timing,  plugs and compression.  It's a place to
start,anyway.

On Tue, 26 May 1998 20:57:15 -0700, you wrote:

>About a week ago I disconnected my 6-volt starter solenoid bypass relay when
>it appeared to have failed.
>
>For those who don't what I am talking about, a common problem with aging
>early 6-volt VW systems is that the power to the starter solenoid fails when
>the wiring gets hot, for instance after you drive on the freeway when it's
>90 degrees outside, then stop for a few minutes.  A fix is to put a relay in
>that draws power right off the huge battery cable connected to the starter
>and then use the power from the ignition key just to flip the relay on/off.
>Works very well.
>
>Anyway, I noticed in the last week that my car started a lot easier, less
>cranking, etc., maybe because less power was being directly sucked off the
>battery?  Unfortunately, I had to jump my car a few times when it got hot
>out, once having to improvise and use my '65 foot heater vent cover - woops,
>shouldn't have left my tool box on the garage floor, will I ever learn? :)
>
>So I hooked it back up today, rewiring the wires to be as far away from the
>heater box as possible, suspecting that to be the problem that made me
>disconnect it in the first place.
>
>So my question is, should installing a relay of that type make my car harder
>to start?  Everything is in order - timing, points, plugs, new battery,
>etc..  My car is bone stock engine wise, although everything is '66 vintage.
>I have never replaced the plugs wires but they "seem" to work fine - I put
>around 40 miles a day on my Square, getting around 28 mpg.
>
>Thanks,
>Everett Barnes
>'65 Squareback S - Sea Blau
>everettb@prodigy.net