Solenoids are everywhere. They open the water valve in your dishwasher, control the flow of gas in your stove, regulate ink delivery in printers, and play a crucial role under the hood of your car.

You hop in your Dodge diesel and turn the key only to be greeted with a click-click sound, instead of the more familiar whirring of your starter motor. Something is wrong. You somehow knew that the ...

In general, a solenoid uses electromagnetic force to move a plunger, thereby converting electric energy into mechanical motion. (“Electromagnetic” means it’s only a magnet when electricity is applied.

When a twist of the ignition key brings no churning from- below, is the problem in the starter or outside it? In this, the first of two articles, we’ll step through simple tests which will show where ...

The opening part of this series laid out how the starter motor works, set the thing in the context of its electrical supply and suggested a few eyes-and-ears checks as the first steps in ...