Starting probs

[k20]

What a night, parents went to Lowes at 7, call me at 730 to say they were gonna have to get 12ft long boards, and could I bring my truck and get em. Sure, so I go pull up at the contractors entrance, shut her off, load it up. Get back in, turn the key and it turns over for like a sec and it just stops turning. The starter engages the flywheel, just doesnt seem like it has any juice to spin it. Its a new 4gauge battery cable(well, relatively new, approx 8 months), and the starter is a powermaster gear reduction that I bought on 1/18/04(o and my luck, its only got a 1yr warranty........). I checked all the connections, cables tight, etc, got it towed home about 20mins ago. Sad sight your truck on a rollback. Anyone have any ideas besides the starter?

Like I said, hit the key, it will turn over slow for like 1 second, and then it just quits turnin. Then when release key it disengages the flywheel. Anyone have any ideas? I really dont wanna drop $230 on another starter......

 

[ryoken]

hows the battery and charging? sounds like a voltage issue...

 

[k20]

O yeh, forgot to mention that, at first, tried to jumpstart it, no dice, so my dad took my batt down the street to advance, they tested it, and said it was fine.

 

[ryoken]

headers? any sign of heat soak?

maybe yank the starter and bench test it if your connections are solid......

 

[k20]

Never had any problems with heat soak before. The truck sat there for 3.5hrs waiting on the towtruck,(and me beating on the blasted thing with a hammer). How would I go about bench testing it and that telling me something? I mean, it does engage, and it does spin, for a second, then it acts like either the charge is weak, or the motor is weak. Im going to get another batt off a buddy of mine tomorow, and see if its the same thing.

 

[ryoken]

here, this should help ya out.. save me from writing it...http://www.misterfixit.com/starttst.htm

hopefully its from the starter on out..

if it tests ok, i'd put it back in, pull the plugs and try and spin it...

 

[85blazerk5]

Sounds about what happened to mine, my battery tested fine...swapped out the battery and connections, and now it works like new.

 

[ryoken]

i come from an industry where connections are the issue 90% of the time... notorious with boats.. 1/2 the time you can get em to go just by jiggling the battery cables... but he said they where good...

 

[diesel4me]

Dont hit it!!

A starter with permanent magnets in it instead of field coil windings(like many of the Hi-performance ones,and late model gear reduction ones) are easily damaged by hitting them or dropping them!!--dont hit them with a hammer!!,the magnets shatter quite easily...

You might have a bad battery cable or a loose or dirty ground,from your symptoms it sounds like only enough current is getting to the starter to barely engage it,then when the starter starts drawing a lot of amps to spin the motor over,it loses power--it could be the starter too,or a bad solenoid or low voltage to the solenoid....

 

[k20]

well great, yeh I beat on it with a hammer. Checked resistance on the batt cables, around 25ohms, doesnt seem outrageous, so doubt thats the problem. I redid the connections about 20 times, cleaned em, etc. I put my dads battery in, and it did the same thing it did w/ my batt. And his batt is bigger. Im beginning to think its starter motor gone fubared....

 

[dheavychevy38]

i had a problem like that with my 87 k10 it was a bad ground wire.