: My starter Quit, made a rather raucus noise and quit!!!!!! 1985 GS 70K miles. Everything else works but not even a click out of the starter. So , Today I learn about starters, will remove it and use the one from my 500 dollar parts car, so far have taken over 800 dollars worth of parts from it, all small stuff that saves time and running about figured at what I would have had to pay. keep this list to justify the junk to the XYL (former young lady)

 

So, you're a ham, too?

I go for a starter today to the PnP: $15. Gave up on 'parts cars' years ago because of the clutter, and parts are cheap at the PnP. Starter bushings and brushes are cheap, too, it's the bendix that's expensive ($59 rebuilt around here).

I use the lightweight Dewalt DW052 impact driver (100 ft lbs torque) to remove bolts, or the DW059 18volt 1/2" impact wrench (300 ft lbs) if necessary. Better than a breaker bar.

B

 

I used a wrench

 

PnP whazzat? No not a ham an old cber. lonessomebob was my handle then and now on line. Got the starter out and discovered the oil cooler leaks, durn! didnt need breaker bars the oil had everything loosened up. now for the junker, I am retired everything costs more than sweat. are the O rings for the oil cooler a special or can I mcGiver it from the hardware supply? Thanks

 

PnP = Pick'n'Pull (or whatever it's called in your local area )

They stock cars that are parted out for cash....
I find that a lot of times I get faulty parts from my local PnP........

 

I just recently replaced the solenoid on my starter. I think I paid about $30 + shipping, mail order from Autozone. In mine, the initiating coil had failed, but the holding coil was working. So, I had intermittent operation. If you have a digital ohmmeter, check the resistance from the start terminal to ground. On my new solenoid it read 0.5 ohms. On the bad one it read 1.0 ohms, and would work most of the time. No click at all may mean only the solenoid is bad. It is not difficult to replace.

And one of those portable jump start batteries makes an easy way to test out a starter before you put it on the car.

Eric

 

Its most likely the solenoid. I had to replace mine and it was fine afterward. My car has 271K km on it (about 170K miles). The starter motor itself is in great condition. Solenoid was only $30 (cdn).

 

First trip, last week, I went nder 4 7s at the PnP with a 3/8 drive 14mm socket and couldn't loosen the top or bottom mounting bolts on the starter. Oh well, tomorrow I take my impact drivers.

B

 

Bob, I feel your pain, my starter crapped out a few weeks ago, turns out the screws that hold down the solenoid had backed off and caused all kinds of electrical chaos.

So I got a new one from Mazda, $85 with a $75 core charge, go figure. I cursed the Mazda engineers while trying to figure out the reverse bolt arrangement they came up with for hooking the starter on, but once you know how it works it's easy (sounds like you got this far). You do need to get a good angle on those mounting bolts.

So anyway, things could be worse. Good luck with the oil leak and be grateful you didn't have to beat on those mounting bolts!

Ray

 

That little DW052 makes easy work of removing rusted screws and bolts. $100 on eBay. Better to use a stutter wrench like that than a breaker bar, which often breaks the damn part.

I also carry a set of 3 Alden wrenches, which are ratchet end-wrenches that work on lots of difficult to reach nuts/bolts.

B