Weird Starter problem
 

hey.. stalled my car in an intersection today.. (don't laugh, i forgot to put it in first.)

anyway.. went to start it up again and nothing happened.. no clicking from the starter solenoid. nothing.. bashed the crap out of the starter with a small hammer.. still nothing..

bomb started the car.. drove home and shut it down.. tried to start it again and it started right up..

kinda lame when you bomb start your car in the mall parking lot.. solenoid toast? battery is like 7 months old.. 850 AMP 6 cell battery (red top)

anyway.. i searched this for a while.. to no avail.. any idea's? take it apart and put it back together? seems like it's getting stuck.. but once it starts again the engine vibrations shake it lose?

thanks guys

sounds like a bad ground, check and or replace. also look for loose connections.

but would that cause the light in the dash to dim when i turn the key?

still seems like the battery is getting loaded by something.. volt meter still drops to about 10 volts while the key is turned. just like it does when it actually starts.

Dash lights go out during start anyway. By them only dimming, you are not getting full juice to the starter. I've been fighting a similiar problem. Redid the battery cable ends, changed the starter, good for 2 weeks. Then last night it happened again. 2 different starters and it did the same thing. Stole both battery cables off one of the other cars, problem solved.

Yep, clean all of your connections and you should be golden... Don't forget the little wire that plugs onto the tab on the starter either, but most likely its either the ground or power wire coming from the battery.

The battery cables in mine that run to the starter are pinched and wrapped in electrical tape. :lol:

I cleaned all the cable ends and the mouting points. The positive cable had some corrosion inside the covering, so I cut the cable back till I found clean wire. Still no luck. I realised tonight I should have ohmed both sets of cables to see if there was any difference.

you're so smart trochoid! also your posts count has been going up so fast! i've been wanting to say this for a while. im so lame lol

p.s. i dont mean this in a sarcastic way. i really mean it. also everyone on the forum are also smart as well! i want more post counts...

oh i think cleaning the battery terminals make a world of difference!

Thanks for the compliment. If I had a life, the post count would much lower. lol

i guess it's time to lose the lame aluminum wires and replace with copper huh? grab some wires off a chevy maybe?

Stock + cable is aluminum.

trochoif i think you might had solved my problem as well, Iam gunan go and clean mine and hopefully it stars up. I was having the same problem as what AS. like everythign he explained is what my car has done

well.. cleaned all wires.. cleaned battery posts.. tested wires for power, they are live end to end..

cables are conducting great..

I have to wach my starter motor wiht a hammer every time i wanna go someplace..

happens every 1 in 5 starts or so. *wack wack wack, Zoom Zoom*

annoying as hell.. celenoid perhaps? starter looks like new. and has no problem turning over the car.

Could be time for a new starter. When the brushes wear down, they won't make good contact on the armature any more. When you hit the starter, it jostles the brushes enough to move them down onto the armature again. You could install new brushes, but I'm not sure how easy that is. I'd just hit a junkyard and grab another one...

thats a BIG issue, Pick a part doesn't have a single RX-7 around.. nothing rotary gets junked around here.. hell not many rotaries are even driving down here. I think I can count the number of 7's in chilliwack on one hand.

anyone know what's compatible?

Take your starter in and have it rebuilt or buy a rebuilt one. If you have to hit it with a hammer, it's the solinoid.

the starter is Fubar, horrible grinding when starting now.. i think the bearing in the starter motor is gone. causing the armature to miss the brushes.

anywho.. there isn't any saving this one.

If there is grinding, check the gear on the starter, if it is chewed up, then check all of the teeth on the flywheel.