compact starter NFG

[HemiDenny]

anyone else having issues with the compact starters? plenty of volts (12.7 within a foot of the starter) but sometimes it works fine.....sometimes it engages...and only clicks, like no/low voltage

could I not have enough cranking amps?.... been A-OK up till now

 

[67Dart273]

Does it just click once, or clickety clickety .....bzzzzz.....?

One click might be bad main cable to starter, bad connection at starter stud, or bad starter

Bzzz usually bad battery, cables, connections

If it does this fairly "regular" "rig" yourself a wire from the main big battery stud (clip lead or bolt on) up to where you can read a meter, and see what you have for voltage there at the starter.

What's your wiring scheme? Truck/ front mount? How you have the cables wired/ routed?

 

[GaryS]

Not saying yours is, but there are lots of cheap Chinese parts out there. I bought a new one from a distributor in the Pacific NW, that was advertised as US made. On the first spin, the nose broke off and wedged beteen the converter and housing. It took several hours and hundreds of curse words to get the piece out. Got a reman...another crapshoot...from O'Reily's, but it has worked fine so far.

 

[HemiDenny]

Does it just click once, or clickety clickety .....bzzzzz.....?

One click might be bad main cable to starter, bad connection at starter stud, or bad starter

Bzzz usually bad battery, cables, connections

If it does this fairly "regular" "rig" yourself a wire from the main big battery stud (clip lead or bolt on) up to where you can read a meter, and see what you have for voltage there at the starter.

What's your wiring scheme? Truck/ front mount? How you have the cables wired/ routed?

click,click,click......on and on,, not the sound you get with a weak battary
until motor cools, then often like new,
recently, it has even done it once...when cold

battary in trunk...but checked voltage at lug near starter...when problem occured....12.7 volts

I'm thinking I have a starter with a bad winding????

 

[67Dart273]

Are you saying just one click for each turn of the key?

If so, I'd say it's in the starter (or solenoid), specially after you said you checked the voltage while the problem was showing itself.

 

[BillGrissom]

If you measure 12.7 V from the starter big stud to the body of the starter, and it doesn't turn over the engine, and you can turn over the engine by hand, then I would fault the starter. Otherwise, determine which of above is not doing its job - cable, ground, engine.

 

[TrailBeast]

The brushes inside the starter are not contacting the armature like they should.
The click you are hearing is the gear engaging the flywheel, but the brushes that are supposed to send power to spin the motor when the bendix engauges are not contacting like they should.
If you open the starter and get those brushes freed up the problem will go away.
It would void a warrantee but fix the problem.

 

[HemiDenny]

The brushes inside the starter are not contacting the armature like they should.
The click you are hearing is the gear engaging the flywheel, but the brushes that are supposed to send power to spin the motor when the bendix engauges are not contacting like they should.
If you open the starter and get those brushes freed up the problem will go away.
It would void a warrantee but fix the problem.

this make sense...I pulled the starter, took it to an automotive electric service, he hooked it up to a 'test battery" and cycled the stater on and off about a dozen times and deemed it A-OK (???) when I told him the symptons he said I probably had a connection problem.

I like to take stuff apart...so I think I will check out the brushes like Trailbeast suggested

 

[Rice Nuker]

80 percent of the time it is poor connections.

Your ground strap from batt to frame clean and nice condition on bare metal?
Frame to engine block ground strap clean to bare metal? All cable connections and cables in clean nice condition?

Voltage drop testing during cranking (attempting to crank) is in order.
First and foremost, check V @ starter + stud while cranking vs. voltage at battery while cranking. You should not see more than a few tenths of a V in difference. Someone here probably knows what the acceptable V drop in a cranking circuit is. I approximate 1/2 volt is max acceptable.

Check V drop at each segment in entire starter circuit while cranking vs. at batt while cranking. You may need to extend your test leads and get some alligator clips. Systematic checking while either using extended leads or a friend to crank while you monitor readings.

Numerous people I know buying starters every time a cranking issue arose (slow crank, no crank, drag, come and go, hot cranking issues).

Mostly it was declining quality of connections and contact surface, improperly sized or degrading ground or hot leads, missing ground straps.
Hell one time the ground to the block was corroded, the block was getting ground thru the aftermarket temp gauge. Smoking temp gauge during cranking gave it away.

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