starter solinoid clocked wrong?

[damnford]

when i got my explorer the starter was sitting out on the ground in pieces. i combined a starter from an Aerostar with and explorer, they both had something different wrong with them. got it all together and tried it out before installing it. worked fine. after installing it in the explorer i hooked up the battery and the starter took off by itself so i disconnected the battery and started scratching my head. does the solenoid go on one way or can it be 180 out?

 

[410Fortune]

There are two solenoids, the fender mounted one and the one on the starter.
You can test them both pretty easily
the one on the fender should not be able to be installed backwards no, but that's not to say it is not possible to screw up the wiring or install a different relay, etc
You can test them quite easily, should have battery power on one side and not the other until the small post is energized.
Sounds to me like the one at your starter may be wrong/bad as soon as you hook it up it starts running

 

[damnford]

wasn't clocked wrong just wired wrong on top.

 

[damnford]

and crappy wires to boot.

 

[damnford]

how does the ign switch get it's power? is it through a fusible link or the ign relay?