Classic Mustangs List Archive

This read-only message was archived from a public mail list.
Mail From: waltm (Wal Marshall)

I read this little story in a Rockauto newsletter and thought I would post
it to the list given the stories of guys installing several replacement
starters and wondering why..

Wal Marshall


My wife's car would not start. The starter had 20 years and 150K miles on
it so I did not bother to do any testing. I just went ahead and installed a
remanufactured Remy starter. The car started and my wife was happy.

About a week later my wife said turning the ignition key would occasionally
only result in a click. I mumbled that it must be the new starter breaking
itself in. A couple of weeks later five turns of the key would not start the
car. Soon it was ten turns of the key. My wife started driving a different
car.

The click was the starter solenoid mounted on the side of the starter motor.
I removed the starter from the car, wired it up, and still only got the
solenoid click. I could not call RockAuto and give them an earful about
selling me a bum starter because it might be me answering the phone! I
decided to get out the repair literature and find out what was going on.

The service manual said check the battery voltage and then check the voltage
on the wire coming from the ignition key to the starter solenoid. That
voltage was supposed to be more than 8 volts. I had heard the solenoid
clicking so I figured it must have been getting 12 volts, but I decided to
do what the manual said anyway. Surprise! The voltage on the ignition key
wire never got above 3 volts!

The ignition key energizes a coil in the starter solenoid that pulls a small
metal drum down a tube. One end of the drum slams into a button that
connects the big battery wire to the wire going to the starter motor. The
other end of the drum pulls on a mechanical arm that shoves out the starter
motor gear so it engages the flywheel. A spring pushes the drum back up the
tube once power is turned off.

Three volts was enough to make the solenoid click, but the drum did not hit
the button at the end of the tube with enough force to get a solid
connection between the battery and starter motor wire contacts. The weak
connection had caused arcing which gradually ate away the contacts inside
the new solenoid and caused intermittent connections.

Starter solenoids damaged by low voltage might be a common problem. I
searched the Internet for something like my "starter just clicks" and found
repair forums where people with many different cars said things like "I am
on my third new starter", "the solenoid clicks so it is ok", etc.

My wife's car has been fine since I put a new solenoid on the starter motor
and hot wired it to a momentary-on switch below the dash. Hopefully,
sometime this year I will take apart the steering column and track down
where the voltage is getting cut down to 3 volts. I will probably end up
replacing the ignition switch. For now my wife is happy pretending she is in
a racecar with a big start switch on the dash!



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: lists.twistedpair.ca/pipermail/classic-mustangs/attachments/20070720/8e5e8a5f/attachment-0001.html