I wheeled out from MSV yesterday evening without any problems. I shut off the Bronco to say our goodbyes but when I tried to start it up again the starter didn't do anything. Short story: the Solenoid wasn't functioning. I jumped the solenoid and the the Bronco fired right up. Questions:

1. What can cause a solenoid to just stop working

2. What new solenoid recommendations do you have (part numbers :) . I don't know if its starter dependent (97 explorer with C4)

3. I read you should keep a spare solenoid in your tool box, but why do you if you can just jump the solenoid?

Thanks.

Buy a 90's solenoid, 96 Bronco one will work fine

1. What can cause a solenoid to just stop working
- Age, heat, bad wiring, zipties

2. What new solenoid recommendations do you have (part numbers :) . I don't know if its starter dependent (97 explorer with C4)
Buy a 90's solenoid, 96 Bronco one will work fine

3. I read you should keep a spare solenoid in your tool box, but why do you if you can just jump the solenoid?
i don't know, heard the same thing and I do.

I have 2 words for you - neutral safety switch. Make sure it's in park or neutral. If park doesn't work, try neutral.

You don't need the solenoid with the explorer starter. It's just a convenient place to connect all the wires you need connected there. You can get by without it but then you'll need to find a way to connect everything.

Thanks for those words of wisdom. Yeah I made sure I was in Park and then tried it in Neutral. As for the zipties making it fail....too many or not enough?

I was able to jump the solenoid from fond memories of the return trip from Moab. Im sure you remember the broken shift collar so I couldn't put it in gear from inside the cab...Good times.


I was going to follow this diagram for the new solenoid. seems to make sense.

Good diagram. You probably have a few more wires on the battery side so just be sure to connect them there.

I put the new solenoid in and it still didn't start (looks like I have a spare now). I had someone turn to start and i had a multi-meter on the ignition wire to the solenoid and it didn't register anything. Are there any ideas why the ignition wire isn't getting juice?

I've checked the NSS wires and they look good. I also made sure the pin holes were lined up while it was in neutral.

What would you check next?

No single connector. I just unwrapped the tape and loom and tested each of the 4 connections. Here's a pic

Nice drawing. You should be a school teacher or something.

The red-blue wire is sending current to the NSS but you isn't getting current out of the NSS to the solenoid. Either the NSS is out of adjustment or its bad.

You need to find me one of those cheap soft tops because it hails big here.

I found this. I'll look for one that fits a Bronco. I think you have a lot of choices with color: Blue, Green, Brown, or Camo.

Maybe just duct tape?

I found some mat tape (tapes wrestling mats together). Its clear and flexible. It'll cover the holes and cracks and will look 20% better than duct tape. I'll bring it to the B-fast unless you want to make a tech day out of it.