[Walt Fricke]

I'm in the band-aid camp. With good connections there should be no need at all for a relay to make the starter solenoid (which is also a relay) work properly.

This from a guy who for the longest time would crawl under his VW bus with a screw driver to connect the solenoid directly to the battery cable to kick the starter over so the regular starter switch would do its job. After a while I ran wires to terminals which were on the edge of the frame so I didn't have to crawl as far under with my screw driver.

I miss the old Bus, but not that part (rebuilt starter cured, of course).