Karma

[Paul Workman]

A word about rebuild kits off ebay...

From what I gathered from posts here - somewhere at about 40k miles issues arise with the solenoid: to be more precise, the two copper contact posts and in particular the copper ring that bridges them when the starter is engaged.

However, the kit I received turned out not to have the correct length pin that links between the sliding armature block and the starter gear. As result, the stater gear would not full engage the FW ring gear; maybe 1/2 at best!

The high current electrical connections consist of two copper posts and a copper ring that bridges the two posts together when the solenoid is energized by the start current (current via ye ol' purple wire, so often discussed). The old posts were badly erroded; one worst than the other resulting in the copper ring (bridge) being tilted a little due to the uneven height of the contact points. In addition, there was considerable amount of what appeared to be carbon tracing and pock marks burned onto the surface of the bridge ring.

In the end, I opted to use the new posts from the kit and resurface the copper ring. With some emery cloth over a piece of wood block, and a little elbow grease, the ring was good as new in only a few minutes. Thus, I was able to overhaul the solenoid contacts and retain the original (correct) link.

In the end, I ran across a written procedure describing exactly what I had done, and on ebay I found just the copper posts for the solenoid going for $6.00 for the pair.

I can report that my starter is working fine, now at 49k miles. So, unless there is a problem with the internal wiring of either stators (solenoid or the starter motor itself), $6.00 for new contacts and a cleanup of the bridge ring may be all you need for some time.

BUT! ...I'm just sayin...If you buy the rebuild kit (new posts and armature/ring), or even if you buy an new starter, you'll want to be sure the armature link pin in the solenoid is the same length as stock or else the starter gear my not fully engage the FW ring. If not, and the FW ring goes bad, then you can look forward to dropping the tranny and pulling the clutch apart...just for beginners, boy-yo-boy!

P.

[Paul in VA]

All of the above is good advice. I had a similar intermittent no start problem as well. In my car it turned out to be the small wire that goes from the ignition switch to the VATS was crushed. Sometimes it worked fine, sometimes I was at a gas station or wherever, waiting for VATS to recycle so as to restart my car. I had a locksmith come in and fix the problem.

[tomtom72]

Originally Posted by Paul in VA

All of the above is good advice. I had a similar intermittent no start problem as well. In my car it turned out to be the small wire that goes from the ignition switch to the VATS was crushed. Sometimes it worked fine, sometimes I was at a gas station or wherever, waiting for VATS to recycle so as to restart my car. I had a locksmith come in and fix the problem.

I had read about how our ignition lock & switch combo has too many wires crammed into too small a space and disaster is just a question of when and not if.

Thanks for this heads up Paul!


Tom