I'm hooking up a two relay system to control my hood release solenoid. Relay 1 uses (87A) to pass current to relay 2 when the ignition is off (86), when the ignition is on the relay is energized and current is output on (87) which is not used. When I connect the ground terminal of Relay 2 (85) to the same ground as Relay 1 (85) I get feedback thru (86) of Relay 1. What's wrong with my hookup?

Here's the detail hookup:

Relay 1
30 +12V
86 Ignition
85 Common GND
87A +12 output to 30 of Relay 1

Relay 2
30 +12 from 87A-Relay 1
86 +12 from 87A-Relay 1
85 Common GND
87 +12 to Solenoid when 85 is grounded.

What do you mean by feedback?

The way I read your wiring when the ignition is off relay 1 will de-engergize and relay 2 will engergize. This is because you are using +12 from R1 87A on R2 86. Which may be your problem. With this wiring everytime you turn off the ignition your hood is going to open. I think what you want is to run R2 86 to a push button that you can push when you want the hood to open. With the ignition on you can push the button but there will be nothing at R3 30 to send to the hood release. When the ignition is off R1 87a will send voltage to R2 30 which can send voltage on to R2 87 when you push the button.

Make sense or does my explination make it as clear as mud?

Clarify "feedback"

From what I can deduce from your explination of how you have these wired, can I assume you are doing so to prevent the hood from accidently opening with the ignition on? Regardless, it looks right, but I do not know what you mean by feedback, too many use this term loosely.

One thing you may check is that the relays are actually what you think they are, just because they are Bosch style five prong does not mean they are wired the same internally.

http://elcaminocentral.com/articles/relays/hoodrelays.gif

Thanks for the input guys. I'm going out to the garage and start checking my relays. I thought I had it wired up properly but then we all make mistakes.

How do you make those excellent drawings Robert? I need something better to make drawings of all the electrical mods I've made to my vehicle. TIA Nick

I start with an image like this:

http://elcaminocentral.com/articles/relays/relay.gif

and Photoshop the rest.