1980 mercury 80hp Black solenoid wire and a puff of smoke

[red85k100rs]

I purchased a 1980 Mercury 80hp from a Widow, Her husband took it off his boat, brought it home from their northwoods cabin for routine maintenance. He passed away over the winter,
I removed my old motor hooked up everything, went to fire it up, nothing. I determined the solenoid was bad. I had one in my spare parts bin and swapped it out, not an exact replacement, the mounting plate is different but the terminals are the same.
I hooked it up exactly as it came off, 2 big wires, small yellow W/red stripe on “S”
And a black wire on the “I”
I turned the key and it fired up almost instantly, with a puff of smoke up near top of the starter. I shut it off instantly. It looked as the black wire on the solenoid is the culprit. I disconnected it and all runs good, also the charging system is working 13.6v just above idle.
I figured something got fried stator or trigger but they seem fine,
Where should that black wire go to?
Runs and charges with it not connected to anything, and it is a ground, I can use that black wire to check for 12V .

 

[racerone]

I think you have an automotive solenoid.------Get the one meant for your motor.-----Smoke can lead to expensive repairs.

 

[Texasmark]

Solenoids have a control winding to energize them and the internal wiring for that circuit is different. Some solenoids are internally grounded to the case......I think the Ford style solenoids were like that. Some the control windings are floating...no internal connections and these are for things like tractors that need to be in N when starting (safety to prevent personal accidents) so there is a switch on the transmission shift lever that closes when in N and provides ground to the solenoid for turn key starting circuits. Other tractors have Ignition ON attached to one terminal and the other is to a push button switch on the tranny that closes for ground only if the tranny is in N.

The yellow/red stripe is your control wire from the remote control START position on the ignition switch. If you disconnected the I wire and it starts, don't worry about it.