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The extra relay will often remove the symptoms, whether it's caused by bad contacts in the ignition circuit or dirty motor or corroded braid between solenoid and motor - on my 6V starter that was just dust! I had a flying lead and an insulated battery lead behind my seat so I could just touch them if it wouldn't turn over! Under the seat (on RHD anyway - not sure on LHD) or by the battery there is a connector in the red solenoid wire - just break the circuit there, put the ignition wire onto the relay coil, earth the relay, and put battery + to one contact connection and the solenoid wire to the other. Easy to do, and as was said, it saves wear on the ignition switch - well-worth doing at this stage in its life. Dave. UK VW Type 3 & 4 Club http://www.hallvw.clara.co.uk/ ------ ----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris Wright" <Christopher.Wright@Sun.COM> To: <type3@vwtype3.org> Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2006 8:12 AM Subject: Re: [T3] Starter: part 2 > A good solenoid should work on 11.5 volts. However, many owners > (including me) have wired the ignition switch back to a relay which when > picked, supplies the full battery voltage onto the solenoid. This has > the advantage of making the ign switch handle only a few milliamps and > therefore it lasts a lot longer. In the meantime, you should clean up > every spade connector on the ign switch circuit to minimise the voltage > drop. If you have a 1 volt drop when the solenoid isn't actually taking > any current, then you can bet it drops further under a 30 amp load. Us > '6 volters' have to contend with volts drops all the time, but the same > rules apply to you 'modern' types. > > The relay I used was an old headlight relay with the contacts slightly > modified and at first I mounted it under the car on a bracket on the > starter bolt, but it soon got moisture in, in spite of sealing with > silicon, so in the end I wired it inside the car down by the battery > under the seat. It's worked fine for the last 3 years. For 12volts, > there are plenty of 30amp accessory relays available very cheaply. > Rgds Chris > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~