961 starting system

Freewheelin · Jul 8, 2013

Working on a 6 volt 961 that"s not here at the moment. I recall it has a 4 post solenoid. Not being a Ford guy I assume that the ignition switch provides fire to one of the small terminals and the other is a ground terminal that is grounded by the push button switch by the shifter. Correct? I assume that if I put fire to one terminal and ground the other the solenoid should close and I should have power to the large starter side terminal. Yes? Final question, does it matter which small terminal is hot and which is ground?

Thanks y"all

JMOR · Jul 8, 2013

(quoted from post at 23:56:03 07/08/13) Working on a 6 volt 961 that"s not here at the moment. I recall it has a 4 post solenoid. Not being a Ford guy I assume that the ignition switch provides fire to one of the small terminals and the other is a ground terminal that is grounded by the push button switch by the shifter. Correct? I assume that if I put fire to one terminal and ground the other the solenoid should close and I should have power to the large starter side terminal. Yes? Final question, does it matter which small terminal is hot and which is ground?

Thanks y"all

o it does not matter. What does matter is that it is the correct 4 terminal solenoid. A very, very common solenoid is the one that uses one of the two small terminals to provide ign coil power during start up & that will not work in your application. Usually the 2 different solenoids look the same, even down to the small terminals marked "S' & "I", which makes sense on the ign feed unit but no sense at all on the one you need with gnd on one & power on the other to activate.

cbrown9064 · Jul 8, 2013

Going brought the same thing on my 861 right now. I knew it was a "grounded" solenoid, tried to explain it to the guys at the parts store, along with the needed 12v p/n (311006) and they still gave me the one that supplies power to the coil. Arrrgghh!

Now waiting for properly cross referenced solenoid to come in (small town).

But to answer your question, you are correct in your thoughts.

FrankS · Jul 8, 2013

If the system is a 12 volt then the small wire to the coil makes sense because it would kick up the normal 6 volts from the coil to 12 volts while the engine is starting. The old Ford cars used that type of solenoid but with the starter switch in the ignition switch. I assume that some of the Ford tractors with 12 volt systems would use that design but then I don"t know if they still used the push button starter switch nor how it would be wired.

cbrown9064 · Jul 9, 2013

Yeah, mine is still wired the 6v way (grounded) as the coil is a 12v coil. In other words, the factory solenoid works the same way whether 6 or 12v.

As an oddity, the solenoid that is sticky on my 861 is still a 6v solenoid.

souNdguy · Jul 9, 2013

pre 65 used the 4 terminal solenoid and no bypass.

post 65 used a resistor wire, 6v coil and a bypass line to the coil key switch start.. no thumb button.. but did have a NS onthe range shifter

961 starting system

Freewheelin

New User

JMOR

Well-known Member

cbrown9064

Member

FrankS

Member

cbrown9064

Member

souNdguy

Well-known Member

Similar threads