Starter

[Booncha57]

I had an ongoing problem where whenever it was damp out my truck wouldn't start. I would tap on the wire ends at the terminals and it would work. I replaced them and it was good for a while then started up again. The tap trick eventually stopped working. I live on a main city road and am waiting to move into this house I bought so I haven't felt like crawling under my lowered ranger in the snow with no jack. So it died on me when I was filling up at a service station down the road so I get fed up and let them take it in. The starter is less than a year old, I thought there was a loose connection at the starter. They told me it was the starter and they were going to charge me $220 for a new one not including install. I told them I didn't think it was the starter but the assured me it was. I bought one and brought it in to them so they couldn't hose me too bad. When I was pulling in their driveway they called me up and said that they bench tested the starter and its working fine. The problem is there is a voltage drop in the wire going from the battery to the starter and there is probably corrosion inside it. The replaced the wire for me and it has been fine for a few weeks up until two days ago. Wouldn't start. Connections up top are all good. So I brought it back to them and they said it's deffinately the starter this time. He said it was arching all over the place. Does that mean that a connection might be loose? I don't know what he means by that. He said I could probably start it if I wanted to carry a hammer around in my truck.

 

[johnsonsnb]

Unfortunately, I would say that the starter is bad. I did the hammer trick to mine for awhile too, and even pulled the wires off the starter, and cleaned them. Eventually, the starter gave up.

I used to work for one of the reman manufacturers, and trust me, the number of electrical units (starter and alternators specifically) that were returned within a year was surprising.

Hope this helps...