Had some electrical issues recently that I've traced down to the starter relay and connector - it's all melted in on itself - presumably corroded terminals causing high resistance and it overheating.

So, I need to replace the relay/fuse housing and connector. The relay/fuse housing is easy enough, I can get a universal part or a breaker unit off ebay or similar (I believe they're all pretty much the same, 4 spade plus 2 fat connections)?

But of course the 4-spade connector is melted too but only comes as part of the loom. Is it a bad idea to replace this with plain old insulated female spades (soldered not just crimped of course), or can I get hold of a block connector that will fit?

I don't see why insulated spades wouldn't do the job.

I'd use them if I didn't have the right connector.

I had the same issues with mine - I just chopped off the block connector and fitted on insulated spade connectors instead.

I had this issue twice with my car. One time the starter button stayed down - I never noticed until I switched the car off - ro at least tried to!

The other time was down to a faulty voltage regulator/rectifier.

Hope this helps...