[Shop-talk] Starter problems

[John T. Blair]

At 06:11 AM 1/10/2015, eric at megageek.com wrote:

 >The failure mode was the typical 'loud click, no starter motor movement.
 >Battery and charging system was completely checked.

Eric

That is indicative of the burned contacts on the starter 
solenoid.  The solenoid
is pulling the plunger in, but when the connecting plate hits the "nonburned"
contact, it doesn't touch the "burned" contact.  So no power is supplied to the
motor.

 >Also, I found out that he had just replaced the pos battery terminal about 2
 >weeks prior because it was so corroded.  I'm guessing the failing connector
 >caused a 'arc' condition in the solenoid.

The battery post failure had nothing to do with the solenoid contact 
failure.  I've
seen the solenoid contact failure on many different vechiles that 
didn' have battery
post clamp issues at the same time.  In fact this is the 1st time 
I've heard of any
kind of battery/post/cable failure at the same time as the solenoid contact.

It's just usage.   Don't know if you remember in the older cars with 
distributors and
points,  there was a "condenser" / capacitor placed across the 
points?  This was to
reduce the sparking and errosion of the point.  Unfortunately, the 
solenoid doesn't
have a capacitor accross it, and because of the starter pulls a lot 
more current
than there is across the points.  So it's bound to happen.

Many car manufactures sell the contacts for about $12 - 25 and you can usually
replace them yourself.  However, for the car repair shop, they just 
replace the
hole kitten-cupoodle as it is cheaper.  The starter has to come out 
either way.
Then you'll pay almost as much to have a mechanic to replace the contact as
the starter costs.  What a bummer.  But on the good side, you've got all new
innards - bearings, etc.

John


John T. Blair  WA4OHZ     email:  jblair1948 at cox.net
Va. Beach, Va                  Phone:  (757) 495-8229

           48 TR1800    48 #4 Midget    65 Morgan 4/4 Series V (B1106)
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