Hi Guys! Happy holidays. I have a simple question, my battery died, it was a 800 crank and at the shop they told me I only needed a 715 so it's what I got and since then it has been tough to start it in the morning and even harder at night so I was guessing "it's the cold" but I am now wandering if it's the battery which crank strength is too low or is my starter dead or dying? Thanks for the help (I have ruled out alternator malfunction)
715cca should be fine. chances are your starter and or solenoid were damaged from when your battery was dying. as the voltage drops, the current increases. with increased current the contacts in the solenoid get burnt and the winding in the start over heat and can melt. it can also hurt the battery cables where the terminals are connected. voltage drop testing on the cables and solenoid will show if they are good or bad. if your getting full cranking voltage to the starter then the starter is probably damaged.
So it ended up being both the starter and the solenoid! The Starter was pumping too much juice so burnt the solenoid down! Changing both tomorrow. I will let you know when the car runs again.
thats what i suspected. ive seen that many times. one will hurt the other. solenoids are cheap enough that they get replaced when ever i do a starter. also this is a good opportunity to switch to the light weight high torque starters ford went to in 92. i think the v8 starters will work on a I6 motor but not entirely sure.
hi and happy new year! I've finally changed the starter, the solenoid and the cables in between and now everything is back to normal! God way to kickstart the year. Also, even if no electrical problem would have surfaced, the starter was in a bad shape, previous owner might have used a cheap one as the gearing inside of it was not straight anymore and rubbing around wearing the housing.
Hello all! I'm reviving this thread as it seams I may have a solenoid / starter problem. So I crank my car with the key, it starts on the go, stoles immediately, then it takes me quite a few turns of the key to actually get any crank, it's turning but no crank. Then hooks again and I'm golden for the day. Restart after every stop I need to make. Except saturday when even re starting hot had the same dance happening. I've tested the battery, it is still close to 100% full. I changed both my solenoid and starter a year ago + the cables going from battery to solenoid to starter. Any idea before I go taking the starter down as I feel the solenoid is still doing it's job? Kind of?
If starter runs but no engagement it's likely a starter issue, if solenoid were bad I doubt it'd run at all... I have seen a combination of iffy starter and cables cause this issue...
Hi Tom, Thanks for your answer, the cables where changed with the starter, so I'm hoping they were good! I will drop down the starter for closer inspection then. Cheers!
so i've dropped the starter, it is filled with metal flakes and the wheel in the transmission shows signs of wear, my guess is it wouldn't fully engage hence not really crank. How could I test that? Thanks
If starter engagement is properly set the starter should NOT run until it's seated fully in flywheel, as long as you still have 2/3 to 3/4 width of teeth you should be OK..... To check, remove the band and top cover(watch for pin which lever pivots on that will want to fall out).... Next depress the lever till drive starts to extend and look at contact on case under lever... If set properly the drive will be fully extended just as the contacts open, that's when motor actually starts to spin(or at least supposed to)...
the thing that got me to my conclusion is the side of the flywheel is worn out (a bit) as if the starter is spinning before getting into position. I've done what you suggested and mechanically it looks in order as you explained. So if it does not start spinning before reaching position then I might have a starter not reaching far enough in the transmission and spinning not being able to fully reach the flywheel, which would cause this wear and not starting well.
