It's not so much that I'm an el cheapo, it's just that sometimes it's easier to just fix the thing than source the part, order, wait. Anyone who's in a bind with their ignition solenoid might want to consider this. Remove it, drill the four aluminum pop rivets out in the base and the thing comes apart in about four basic pieces. The contacts are heavy copper, easy to clean up with a bit of sandpaper or the movable contact can be flipped over for a new surface. In the case of mine, I found the wires from the coil had become detached from the solder pad. A couple minutes with a soldering iron, four pop rivets and it works like new. Will the repair last, who knows, guess I'll find out. Might get you out of a bind if you find yourself in that special part of Egypt with no readily available replacement.
Chuck
Nothing wrong with doing a field repair. You are exactly right knowing things like that can sometimes get you rear out of a jamb. These days seems like repairing a part is a lost art, just take the suspect part out throw it away get your $$$ out and put a new one in. 20 years ago we rebuilt starters, alternators, brake parts and such. Now days parts stores don't even carry the parts, and sadly most shops don't even have a mechanic that knows what the inside of solenoid looks like, much less a starter or alternator or soldering gun.
If you rebuild the part as a mechanic and it fails it's on your time to replace it.
That's the reason for becoming skilled in doing as many of your own repairs and PM as you can learn to do. And, it gets done the way you like it!