Bad thoughts lead to starter failure!

[ccarley]

Yeah. Here's the story.

I was driving to the store last night to get some Lagunitas Censored, and to a BBQ place to pick up a rack of ribs. Normally I'd have time to BBQ them myself, but with our new baby daughter, well, she decides when & what to do!

On the way to the store, I *thought* for only a second, "man it would be crazy if I got there, did my shopping, and the starter failed!". It was a passing thought, I have not had any starter issues up to this point.

Sure enough, I came out of the store, and I turn the key. "Click" goes the solenoid, and all the lights stay on. D'oh! I quickly grabbed the biggest ratchet I had with me (my bigger toolbox is only loaded for trips), and started beating as hard as I could on the sucker. Didn't work. I thought about using a screwdriver to hit the batt lead to the output from the solenoid, but there is so much grounding material around it that I didn't want to risk it. I now see that I don't need the pinion bumpstop, which is in the way, so that will be coming off. The output from the solenoid is as green as the statue of Liberty! I'm pretty sure replacing the whole thing will fix the problem, especially since the solenoid was clicking.

So, it sits in the grocery store parking lot at the moment. I'm headed out this morning to get a new starter.

What can I say, it's all my fault for thinking that!

Clay

 

[ryoken]

bet it'll bench test ok.. 75% of failures are connections... it's my life.. wiggle-ing wires...

 

[dremu]

Dang. My experience is that the solenoids fail first; beating them with a 2x4 (non-conductive ) tends to shake 'em loose long enough to get home and R&R the starter. I do recommend a heatshield for the solenoid; Dorman makes one under the Motormite "Help!" brand, easy to do while you're replacing the thing.

Ryoken as always make a very valid point though, that crappy connections will bite yo in the butt, especially for high-current connections (i.e. battery, alternator, starter).

I had one truck that wouldn't start; dome and dash lights worked, but you'd crank the starter (no turn!), and then all the lights would go dead for an hour or so. Then they'd work again until you cranked the starter.

The negative battery connection was crapped out, enough that it would pass the lower current for the lights, but the starter pulled so much juice that something heated up and broke the connection.

Ungunked the battery terminal, slapped my forehead and it was fixed... two days farting about, ten minutes to fix.

-- A

 

[ryoken]

that's one of my first troubleshoots on boats... grabbing wiring harness's and give em a shake...

 

[ccarley]

The wires were pretty good, I checked the ground to the block, the + output from the battery to the starter, and the triggers; but the output from the solenoid was super corroded. I'll have them bench test it; I bet the starter is ok, but the solenoid is probably gone.

The new one went in, in the parking lot, in about an hour.

Heat shield is an excellent idea! There was one on there, but it didn't fit the new starter. I'll be trimming it to make it fit.

Man that's just some funny stuff though! Glad it happened 5 minutes from home

Clay

 

[ccarley]

Oh yeah. My wife had a great idea last night. She suggested, that since there are so many little things going wrong with this engine, perhaps I get a new one?

Really? Hmmm. Isn't there a 383 stroker that's smog legal in CA available now?

But then, I told her that a new engine doesn't come with sensors, starters, etc usually.

Clay

 

[Burbdood 74]

I had the same thing happen to me on the way to work this last winter when it was -21* out. I laid out in the parking lot of the convienence store in 3" of snow pounding on the starter with a frozen hand sticking to the 12" crescent wrench with no luck.

After I got it home that night, I saw that it was a loose ground. Bright side though, it had warmed up to 0* so I wasn't totally miserable.....

 

[diesel4me]

A side note--if you whack one of the newer gear reduction starters or one with a permanent magnet motor with a hammer (or just about anything else if you smack it hard enough),you'll succeed in destroying the magnets,they'll shatter like glass and jam the starter up ,and you will be walking home!...some "old school" tricks dont work on "new tech" parts!...