So I just purchased a '76 Maverick, and it stopped cranking with a bad clicking coming from the starter relay. I replace the starter relay, still clicking, replaced the starter itself, still clicking. Any ideas? There are some wires that are broken that go to the alternator regulator that I know I'll need to replace, but shouldn't it try to turn over anyway?
Do you have a good ground connection from the chassis to the engine??? Are your cable ends clean and tight on the battery/solinoid??? Is the battery fully charged (most likely not) if you have wires broken at the regulator. This means your charging system is not working properly, causing you to have a low or dead battery...
But would the starter relay still click over like that? I don't ever remember that sound from a dead or low battery.
You the man, Mavman, went to jump it, turned over fine.. guess I'm going to replace the alt regulator and the pigtails and see if I can keep the battery charged. Thanks!
If the solenoid is clicking it's doing what it's supposed to do...The problem is somewhere else....My Ranger occasionally does that...Rap the starter motor with a hammer a coupla times and all is good
Ok, so I got the battery charged, re-wired the alternator pigtails (they were broken in a few spots, probably why the battery wasn't charging in the first place) and got everything hooked back up, leaving the new starter in because the old one was caked anyway. Now, once the engine cranks, it sounds like the starter has about 1,000 cats caught in it. It SCREAMS. There's no grinding sounds, just the screaming. I saw on several forums that some of the new starters need to be shimmed, and I haven't. Is this a normal thing and it just doesn't have the room to disengage without the shim? Or am I missing something and have a totally different problem? Thanks guys!
I had a van with an oil leak once that would leak into the starter motor. The first motor I replaced I figured it was just a motor gone bad. When the second motor starting doing the same within two months, I opened it up and found it just full to the brim with engine oil, which catches all the dirt and crap as you drive down the road and turns to muck, and jams up the starter. That oil leak wasn't obvious either, I just assumed my 200k mileage van was burning a little oil. As to the Original posters issue, any time you see frayed or broken wires, fix that before fixing anything else, it's always a serious problem.
Well, I did fix the wires as soon as I noticed they were broken, but I still don't think that's what's causing my starter issues. The old starter sounded fine, the new one whines. I'm assuming it just isn't disengaging, so I guess I need to try shimming it.
Ford starters do not need to be shimmed. That's a Chevy thing. As long as the block plate is in place (between the block and bellhousing) the starter should function as intended. Now there are different starters for manual and automatic transmissions, maybe you've got the wrong one ?
Looks like they do make them for Fords, but they all seem to say they fit the V8s. When I went to Autozone to get the new starter, I did make sure to tell them it was an auto, but that doesn't necessarily mean they didn't pull the wrong one. I'm not too sure what you mean about the block plate. When I took the old starter off, and put the new one in, nothing came off or went back on other than the starter itself. I've already taken the core back (I know, dumb on my part, but I've never had trouble swapping starters before so I didn't think about it) so I'm not positive now that they were identical. Like I said, the old one was so caked with mud and oil that I couldn't tell without some major cleanup, even though in hindsight I should have done that. Should I simply take out the starter and try to swap it again?
Take the starter back where you got it...See if they still have your core...Match em up. Sounds like you got a stick starter instead of an auto trans starter. The stick starter has a shorter snout (measured from the mounting face to the stub at the end where the gear shaft ends. The two dont interchange. I allways take the old starter with me and match em up...Too many parts house guys have no clue now a days...
Most of the time...This is correct Frank...Still I have had more than a few occasions where Its the wrong starter...Be it boxed wrong or wrong part. Murphys law you know...LOL...
