Anyone ever eliminated the fender solenoid?

mob

the guy who hits on his mom
Dirt-Old 20+Year Member
Oct 3, 2003
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Hey guys this may seem like a stupid question but has anyone ever tried to eliminate the fender mounted solenoid? I was thinking something like a newer car, wondering if it may be possible to run the battery to an underhood fusebox maybe picked out of another car at a JY. Is there anyway to just use the solenoid mounted on the starter, and use the fusebox for the rest of the power wires?
 
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its not a nightmare. I did it on my car. As a matter of fact, you'll have to do it w/ alot of the aftermarket high torque starters. just take the small wire that is going to the solenoid that closes the coil and run it straight to the new starter. Run a direct 02 ga. or 04 ga. direct from the batt and it works. I used a bulkhead mount insulated stud ($20.00jegs/summit) to get the power from the batt to the starter and still allow a "mounting point" for the rest of the cables that are bolted on the old solenoid
 
I removed mine. But I added a 150 amp fuse block between the battery cable and the rest of the wiring. I also had to add a small relay to trigger the solenoid on the starter because the pink/green wire didnt carry enough current to engage the starter. I will get pics of my setup here soon for you.
 
Eliminating the starter relay would be a big mess on a 5.0 Stang. You would need a mini starter, and even then the starter segment of the ignition switch is not designed to carry the high current that the piggy back solenoid on the mini starter draws.

The best you could do would be to use the mini starter and a separate high current push button or relay. You would still need to have a junction point for all the things that pick up battery power. That means the big ugly cluster of wires would still be present somewhere in the car.
 
it all depends on your perspective on what " ugly mess" looks like. I too had to add a 30 amp relay to trigger the solenoid on the starter.
mustangengineswap023.jpg
 
Hey Joe the purpose of doing this would be to clean up all the wires. What I want to do is basically take a udnerhood fusebox out of another car, and mount it in the engine compartment of the fox so there wouldnt be a wiring mess. What amp relay do you think I would need to use for the ignition wire? You think an 85 amp relay would do it? I have a spare one laying around I got from skycraft. I picture using a fusebox like this:

Obviously not the same exact one but I plan on just taking one out of a car from a JY. Also how would I run the alternator power wire? I have a 3g upgrade and a 4ga wire coming from the alt, would I need to run that straight to the battery with the fuse inline or could I run it to a fusebox? I figure newer mustang with a 3g alternator has the wire going to the fusebox in the engine compartment correct? The objective being eliminating the starter solenoid and making it look factory.
78%20Underhood%20fuse%20box.jpg
 
I have a similar setup like madmike's. My relay is under the dash, and I have a power/ground strip in the fender that is connected directly to the battery. As jrichker mentioned, this can only be done with a mini starter, and it's not a good idea to eliminate the solenoid without replacing it with a relay. I also used a 30A relay.
 
Hey Joe the purpose of doing this would be to clean up all the wires. What I want to do is basically take a udnerhood fusebox out of another car, and mount it in the engine compartment of the fox so there wouldnt be a wiring mess. What amp relay do you think I would need to use for the ignition wire? You think an 85 amp relay would do it? I have a spare one laying around I got from skycraft. I picture using a fusebox like this:

Obviously not the same exact one but I plan on just taking one out of a car from a JY. Also how would I run the alternator power wire? I have a 3g upgrade and a 4ga wire coming from the alt, would I need to run that straight to the battery with the fuse inline or could I run it to a fusebox? I figure newer mustang with a 3g alternator has the wire going to the fusebox in the engine compartment correct? The objective being eliminating the starter solenoid and making it look factory.
78%20Underhood%20fuse%20box.jpg

Good plan, but explaining it over the Internet may be difficult. Probably the best approach is to get a 94-95 Mustang wiring diagram and use it to give you some guidance.

One thing is for sure: you need a junction point where battery, starter, alternator and power feed for the fuse panel inside the car all connect together. The fuse for the 3G alternator would attach to that junction point.

If you use a fuse box to replace all the fusible links, you will need to peel back a fair amount of the wiring harness to remove the fusible links and replace them with regular automotive wire. Since Skycraft is handy, you might consider using circuit breakers instead of fuses. The aircraft style circuit breakers come with either a 7/16" nut or two 6-32 screws to mount them into a panel. This is dependent on being able to find a suitable weather tight box that can take the under hood heat. You could mount the relay for the mini starter in the fuse or circuit breaker box. Heat and moisture protection are going to make this a bit more difficult to do than wiring stuff inside the passenger compartment.
 
Hey Joe, this may be a silly question but what if I left the factory fuse-able links in place?

It would still work, but if the fuse ever blew or the circuit breaker ever tripped, you probably would have to peel back the wiring harness and remove the link. It would probably blow at the same time or get seriously over stressed to the point of failing at the most inconvenient time possible.
 
Here are some of the fuse link circuit you would have to re-wire with fuses or circuit breakers.

64326d1287785504-fusible-link-burned-up-need-help-87-93-5.0-mustang-fuse-links.gif


Starter wiring that would need to be changed. Note that this is for the mini starter which is a must for the work you want to do.
Starter solenoid wiring 92-93 Model cars.
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