Beware Aftermarket Solenoid

[HarryL]

I had purchased a starter solenoid off eBay last year and finally decided to install it last month.
It worked great up until yesterday when the starter motor would not stop cranking even after turning the key off.
It's amazing how fumble fingered you can become when trying to quickly remove the fake cover to get to the battery.
Fortunately I was in the shop with my tools handy and got the battery cable off before anything melted down.
Upon taking the solenoid apart, the copper plunger was melted to the copper plates and I had only been cranking for a few seconds The copper is super soft and I have no doubt that it is not Kawa specs.
Makes me want to put in a master switch going to the starter. Any ideas on how many amps the starter draws?

[Mr Jensee]

Charlie had installed a set of driving lights on his Voyager XII and upon inspection wondered why they were disconnected. First I wired up a positive and a negative wire to one light and put it to the battery. It got so hot after a few seconds that it burnt my finger. Upon tracing the wires down to the solenoid I found that it was fused together. A word to the wise to make sure when installing a solenoid or a relay not to over load it's ratings.