re: #190 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge

That iron core in the solenoid’s rusted into its cylinder. Still beats the small-block Ford starters that have no solenoid—they just depend on the field buildup to squirt the gear out into the flywheel. Problem is if there’s the tiniest bit of excess resistance anywhere, it’s already spinning when it gets there. The corners of the gear get ground down so it flies off before the engines really running. I used to have to replace starters every fucking year.

Heh, this engine is a Ford small-block. The “solenoid” is mounted on the fender; I have a replacement sitting out in the garage. Those particular devices are notoriously unreliable and I know the one in the car is bad; I jumped it and the battery drew current, but the engine still didn’t turn over. and yes, I know it’s not the engine that’s locked up because I spun it by hand.