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Sat Mar 20, 2010 7:46 pm

I'm having a problem that occurs once or twice a week. No juice is getting to the starter. I have a GE code (79) motor in a 76 bus. There is power to the solenoid from the battery and when I turn the switch, power is flowing to the fuel pump so the switch is good. What I found was a relay attached to the starter. Terminal 30 on the solenoid goes to the relay. The ignition switch goes to the relay. A third wire goes from the relay to 50 on the solenoid.

Frst, none of the wring diagrahms show this relay, does anyone know why it is there?
Second, is it going to hurt anything if I remove this relay and wire as shown in the diagrams?

Sat Mar 20, 2010 7:54 pm

what you have is a hot start relay kit installed. when the wires in the bus get old and tired, the risistances of them can build up, making starting hard sometimes. this kit you have is made to shorten the distance the electricity has to travel to compensate for the high resistances.

it is not a true repair, but a bandaid fix to a hard starting problem.

you can remove it. clean your connections on your wires, and it may get better.

a couple weeks ago, someone on here had the relay go bad,, and their bus drove off when it was parked, and hit another car.

there is a diagram on ratwells site if you need
http://www.wolfsburgwest.com/wired/wired_03_01/wired_03_01.htm

Mon Mar 22, 2010 10:21 am

I removed the relay. It was extremely old and grounded through it's attachment to the starter. The bus is still very difficult to start. Even with a new alternator and battery, it still sounds like there is barely enough power to start the engine. We'll have to see if I have the "no juice" issue anymore.

What about the limited power to turn the engine over? Any ideas?

Mon Mar 22, 2010 10:35 am

For $25 you can repalce the battery to starter cable, the battery ground strap, and the chassis ground strap.

I would do that before I got too involved in anything else.