Fuel solenoid failure/fire

[Dieselpwrram]

My fuel shut down solenoid had a failure. At first the solenoid would hold but not pull up the plunger. I maually had to push the plunger up to in order to start. I replaced the relay and fuse link at the battery. I tuned the engine over and the pig tail of the solenoid caught fire. Lucky fire didn't spead beyond the wiring and plastic cover at the solenoid.

I decided to switch over to a manual cable cable setup vs OEM electric. Works great, see my write up on this conversion in this forum.

[MnTom]

Did the relay stick to cause the solenoid to be pulling so much power? My daughter ran into that problem with her truck and it turned out to be the harness by the left shock coming from the PDC that had rubbed on the mount. That was a son-of-a-gun to find! Hey, just noticed you are from NE Ohio. Where at? I am pretty familiar with that area.

[Dieselpwrram]

Thanks for your info. No, I replaced the relay with a new 70 amp. unit from Freightliner. The starter may have hung up when I bumped the starter. The bump may have been enough to fry may solenoid. My starter other wise has no symptoms of worn solenoid contacts or problems. I used the shorted solenoid as a base in my conversion to a manual cable setup. Now I won't have to be bothered with relays and all that to start and stop the engine. I kind of like the manual setup and low cost of repair.I live S/W of Cleveland. Not very many CTD in my area.

[MnTom]

I just wonder what caused the solenoid to burn up. Something held the pull up side energized too long.....I grew up about 40 miles east of Cleveland.