Starter Solenoid 6V or 12V ?

So I headed down to Advance auto parts and got a new 12V solenoid but it wouldn't work. Went back, swapped it, still wouldnt work. I tried every post and possible combination of connections. No go

Everythings doing what its supposed to do except the solenoid

I put the old 6V back on and it fired right up. Im worried about it sticking on again or I'd leave it

Questions

1) Why wont a generic 12v solenoid work for me?

2) If I put a new 6v (original style) solenoid on, will it burn up or get stuck on and fry my starter? The NH man says 6v ok/the Advance man says 6v will cook to death on 12v

You can take apart the old 6v relay (think it's a relay actually, not a solenoid), clean up the contacts, and put it back together again.

It will work just fine with 12 volts. These units are overkill, and 12 volts isn't going to fry one.

HOWSOMEVER.....if you go constantly cranking for over a couple of minutes, your going to make your starter puke its guts all over its commutator. Same thing for your starter solenoid. Iffn it takes more than 10 seconds to 12 volt start your tractor, you got real problems, fix 'em.

The reason a 4 terminal solenoid doesn't work, is one side of your tractor type solenoid coil is internally connected to the battery terminal and the other side of the coil is externally grounded by the starter switch at the tranny.

Generally speaking, solenoids don't care positive or negative ground. Starters don't care positive or negative ground. But both don't like to be abused by excessive use of higher than designed voltage, its just that generally, you can get away with it for the short time it takes to start before they get too hot.

The NH parts guy is correct. The Advance guy is only correct if you keep the solenoid in long time use, which you won't if your engine starts like it should.

Myself, I'd go ahead and use a standard 6 volt Ford starter solenoid..... ..Dell

I did this to make sure the safety feature of the button (keeps you from starting it in gear) was not compromised.

Anyway, I hope this is of some help!

Old British sports cars were + ground, and when I was a mechanic working on them we periodically had to install - ground radios in the manner you described. It was kind of risky, as the entire radio was "hot", and the heater cables & such had to be kept away from the radio...Al English

Hope this helps

I think my hot new battery (plus alot of long cranking while I was resolving my ignition/carb issues) finally killed it.