blew the solinoid off the starter

[original balzer]

First an explanation; I basically gave the truck to my father for repayment of some loans he has given me in the past when I was down on my luck. He never said anything about the money, I probably didn't need to give it to him, but he loves that truck and it made me feel better about everything.

77 (camo truck) got the headlights left on and the batteries ran dead. It has 2 optima red tops in it and 0ga battery cables. He parked it near the haystack so nobody really noticed the lights were on for 3 days. Past experience has taught me, optimas NEED to be charged VERY SLOW. So the next 2 days it had a 1.5 amp trickle charger on it. Well this morning I went to start it its began to turn over then made a POP, WIRRRR, sound. I had to get to work so I left it there and took another truck. My little bro got elected to fix it and he said it busted the nose cone and basically shot the solenoid forward dis-engaging the starter from the flywheel.

Easy fix and it now sports a chrome under drive starter. The batts are fully charged and good to go. By the way a cold engine and 1600 cold cranking amps can cause breakage lol, it was MINUS 26 degrees this morning!

Sorry I don't have pics my brother left the old starter at the starter alt. re builder.

 

[Jason4x4]

nosecones usually break when the starter is engaged when the engine is still rotating, is it possible it caught briefly then you hit the starter again before it was done turning?

 

[original balzer]

I doubt it the engine never made a full rotation. I know I didnt let off the key until after it broke. Probably not realy a case of too much power but just a faulty nose cone that finaly let go. Still I never had anything like that happen. Just thought it was kinda cool.

 

[lectric80]

I have seen this happen a few times. It can be caused if the engine catches and the starter is still engaged, but that is very rare since the starter drive has a one way rotation to kick it out. It is most commonly caused by a hairline fracture in the nose cone, a good hit from the starter drive will then fracture it when cold. At the starter shop it was pretty common to see this kind of thing happen during the winter months, and we don't get nearly as cold as Roosevelt.