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I am rebuilding the electrical system on a 78 and the solenoid looks mighty corroded. Wondering if any body has found a cheaper alternative than the stock one?

Years ago I had the same problem and somewhere I read that you can mount a pickup truck starter solenoid down under the motor by the foot peg. I'll have to dig through some old paper work to find out the exact model but it did work well after I got the right length battery cable to run up to the battery. This solenoid was nice and big, not small like the OEM.

A Ford one would work but they are pretty big. I got a snowmobile universal type off Ebay for one of mine. You have to rewire those universal types but they seem to work fine.

I've seen lawn tractor solenoids used but the quality was questionable.

Q

One thing with the Ford solenoid you can get one anywhere.

The Ford solenoids can be used for a good source of 12 volt power. Just use the terminal that goes to the battery.

When I was looking at using one on a 76 naked it looked too hard to hide.
That east coast fellow who restored his bike with his daughter managed to get one in there somewhere though.

almost all older Honda solenoids are the same...main in, main out , ground out, trigger feed in. they may look a little different and the connectors may be different but the all work the same...T

How sure are you that it's really bad. I was able to disassemble mine and clean the contacts (the windings were still good). It's held up good for the last 3 years with no problems.

...........Paul

Paul, I am sure it works, but it looks like a bad case of crusty donuts, I'd rather replace it and continue on with as many new parts as I can afford!

I just replaced my starter solenoid on my 79 with a lawn mower solenoid. It was too big to go next to the battery so now it sits in the left shelter half. Works great

Mine had a lawn tractor solenoid in it, barely hid behind the side cover.

Snagged one from China on eBay like this, so far so good, with the difficulties starting it has been tested pretty good so far.
Robber cover has slot to mount in on the battery cage.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/78-Honda-Goldw ... SwuDFcaK4J

Be careful with that eBay part !

More than a few members have ruined a battery and starter motor when the unit suddenly stuck permanently closed.

Like I said, so far, so good.

On my 24 horse lawnmower, I replaced the mower solenoid with automotive.

Now that some space may be opening up with a single carb conversion, I may mount an automotive solenoid in the new space in the carb bay.

Listen to Cliff. I will go so far as to urge you to remove that unit from the motorcycle and throw it as far as you can. There have been way too many instances mentioned, mine included, where those things stick and burn up starters.

It's a ticking time bomb.

I actually got lucky on mine and did not ruin the starter. But I did almost kill myself getting it disconnected.