need your advice with my small electrical problem

-
71dustar

71dustar

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 14, 2007
Messages
1,022
Reaction score
8
Location
Fountain Hills, Az
I have a BWD s5049p solenoid as my ignition relay. Since i do not have keys as an ignition, im using a small rocker switch to engage the relay to turn everything on in the car. My problem is that this relay does get hot and there are times where if i turn the car off and then try to turn the car back on the relay does not want to latch. it will stay in the open position. This is the second bwd relay to do this to me. (I got it from checker auto since its a lifetime warranty)

Here is a break down of amperage for all electrical circuits in my car:
fuel pump-2amp
low beams-9amp
high beams-10amp
radio-7->10amp (depending on volume)
ignition (without out anything else turned on)-5amp
each fan-25amp

I am running a 100amp alternator so i know at times my alternator will be working 100% of the time to keep the voltage up. I know i should get a higher amp alternator to cope with my electronics.

What else could be causing my ignition relay to stick? Should i try a different brand?

When i hooked an amp meter in place of the ignition relay and have one fan, fuel pump, radio, and high beams on i'm only pulling 8amps with a spike of 13 amps i saw once. So Im lost as to why this relay is getting hot and being faulty. I thought that maybe since i have so much electronics that i was pulling a lot of the amperage through the relay but again i only saw 8 amps where the relay would be for the ignition. This was also with the motor not running.
 
Could be that solenoid is not rated for 100% duty cycle. Contacts will be OK, but the coil is what will be heating up. Try a solenoid from the RV industry that is meant to isolate the RV battery from the main battery.
 
each fan needs its own relay and sopply wire(s). The coil in the relay is where the heat is comming from anyway. Do you have massive wires and current feeding the signal side of the relay ? Is the signal side properly grounded ?
 
each fan does have its own relay with a main power wire with their own 30amp fuse. the headlights has its own relay also.

i have the solenoid grounded to chassis and i have the ignition switch feeding power to the "s" terminal on solenoid when turned on. I believe all the main power wires are like a 10 or 12 awg wire.

I also have a solenoid for the starter. I have tried to put a relay for everything. only thing i dont have a relay for is radio and fuel pump but i do have an inertia switch for fuel pump and it doesn't draw that much amperage.
 
Have you checked the amp. draw on the coil side? Voltage drop accross the the toggle switch? Or can you hear it try latch but the contacts might be carboned up?

It could just be cheap Checker parts!
 
using a starter solenoid as an ignition relay is not a good idea. As was stated before, a starter solenoid is not meant for continuous duty... replace it with another relay that is a continuous duty and you should be fine. If you do want to use a solenoid, go get a solenoid from a gas golf cart. They are continuous duty. The starter runs the whole time the engine is running (actually a starter/generator). Gas golf cars use 12 volt, elec ones use 36 volt so make sure it is for a gas one.
 
well thank you for clearing that up for me. I thought they would be ok for an ignition relay. I will switch it out for a continuous duty. makes perfect sense.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top