which starter?

[jrt2nd]

I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to replace the starter on my 1990 2.9 manual tranny ranger. The problem I'm running into, is there seems to be 2 different starters called out for this application. One with a round solenoid on top the starter and one with the sloped cover on top the starter. I have the one with the sloped cover but the ones with the round solenoid seem to be cheaper. Will either starter work?

 

[rusty ol ranger]

No.

I never seen a older ford with a starter mounted solenoid. Your solenoid is on the fender and im going to guess having 2 solenoids with only one (the fender one) getting a crank signal from the key isnt going to work.

In other words...get the correct one

 

[jrt2nd]

Yup. You are right. No wire to energize the solenoid at the starter.

 

[19Walt93]

You can use the starter with the solenoid mounted on it if you really want to. I have one on my 77 Mustang because I needed header clearance. You'll need to move the starter cable to the hot side of the fender mounted solenoid and run a small- 14 ga or so- wire from the output side of the fender solenoid down to energize the starter mounted solenoid.
I wouldn't do it for 2 reasons (1) it's an unnecessary complication, and (2) there will be 12 volts at the starter all the time. See the post in the 3.0 forum about throwing sparks when changing the oil filter. Simpler means more reliable and less problems.

 

[2 bronco 11s]

The one with a solenoid is for the 4.0 .