starter questions from T.J.Higgins:
| day, and then not until the next day. However, tonight I cranked it
| and it started, and I immediately shut it off and tried it again;
| nothing. I've verified that all the connections are tight. Juice is
| definitely getting to the starter motor. That motor is sucking
| voltage big-time (or is it amperage? I'm no EE). When I try to
| crank it and it doesn't turn over, the battery terminals get very
| hot. If I turn on the lights and try to crank it, the lights go dim.
|
The hot terminals are your answer or at least a significant part of it.
Any place that gets hot in a circuit is where the work is being done.
In a high current application this becomes a good diagnostic tool. Take
off both ends of both battery cables. Use a wire brush battery cleaning tool
to clean the cable ends, the posts, and the surfaces on the body that the
ground cable is connected to. Better yet attach the ground to the engine block,
that will reduce the number of cables in the starter circuit from 4 to 3.
(The ground from the chassis to the engine will no longer be part of the
starter motor circuit.) If your cables are kind of skinny or starting to fray
replace them.
| My workshop manual says that if the starter won't engage, you should
| turn the starter with a wrench
this is in case there is a bad commutator segment on the armature where the
brushes contact. If there were You would draw no juice rather then lots of
juice.
(not your situation)
|or put the car in gear and rock it back
| and forth to release the pinion in the starter.
This is incase the starter gears are prematurely engaged or jammed. If the
starter turns very easily with a wrench this is not your problem either
|
| This car leaks oil like a teen-ager with acne. There is a stream of
| oil along the bottom of the starter motor casing. Could this be part
| of the problem?
|
not unless the oil was getting inside and onto the commutator and maybe not
even then. (not likeley your situation)
How old is your starter? Are the brushes worn down? Try the battery cables first
If that fails to solve the problem. Your starter is about all thats left.
( you proved your battery was good, and you proves the solinoid was making good
contact, otherwise the lights wouldn't have dimmed.)
HAPPY HUNTING :^) //dickn
|