Sounds like a solenoid to me too. I had the same issue, but my stbd. motor would act like there was no juice even when the the port motor would start and be running (with the extra amps from the alt). Sometimes it would click, but if you played with it enough it would fire right up.

My issue turned out to be the solenoid on the starter. I had it rebuilt for the whopping cost of $25 and it's been great ever since.

Here you go. $7.80. Hardly more than a gallon of gas )

http://www.dbelectrical.com/p-3308-n...8-smr6001.aspx

The positive battery cable bolts to the starter, the small wire triggers the solinoid, how many amps could it possibly need.

thanks ordered. You wouldnt happen to have a cheap solenoid up your sleave in case its the starter solenoid.

the same place blue thrunder posted for you sale starter s alternar at a great price i get my parts there too

It would draw a whole lot more amps with a 30' run of wire than a 3' run of wire from the ign switch. As voltage drops (due to conductor length) amps go up. Unless of course they upsized the wire. But then they would have to upsize the ignition switch to handle the larger condutctor.

Anyway, I don't have the specs on the delco type solenoid amp draw but I assure it is much more than the amp draw of the small slave solenoid.

I've run mine for years without the slave solinoid, maybe I've been lucky.

Have you ever got into a situation where you were doing a lot of cranking? Did you upsize the wire from the 16ga that is std?

600 cubic inch EFI usually starts pretty quick, tilton super starter, stock wire size. I'm not telling anyone not to run the slave solinoid, I'm sure Mercruiser put it on for a reason. In my application I don't need it.

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