BoostedRX

Well I made a thread about 2 weeks back asking what my problem would be because my car is not starting. I would turn the key and it would sound like the car wanted to turn over but it was cranking slowly.

Well here is the update. Kinda long but please I'm trying to get my 7 running.

Ok, so I get alot of people telling me it is my starter so I go to autozone and get new one. I put it in and nothing. No clicking no sound at all. My radio and headlights and everything work though.

I bring the part back tell them to test it and it fails so they take it back and tell me to wait 3 days for the new one.

3 days later i get new one. Put it in and turn key and I hear almost as if the starter is grinding on the flywheel so i stop take it out and nothing no sign of wear on the teeth or anything. Looks brand new so I hook it back in and same thing again. I then do the test at home by hooking battery charger to the starter and taking screwdriver and touching the bolts on the back which then makes the gear inside spin but it doesn't kick out.

I try putting it back in the car and nothing now i get no sound from the starter. First it was making a loud grinding sound but no evidence of grinding and now I put it back on and it makes no sounds. Just a very low low hum.

Well so far I took it back again for them to send me a third one and I hooked up the charger to my battery cause I read on the instructions that came with the starter cause i read that if I turn on the headlights and put the red to positive and black to negative I should get a 12.4 volts coming from battery. Now instead I was getting 11.3. The instructions say anything less than 12.1 may mean the battery is bad but I just got that battery a year ago.

So, could buying a new battery solve my problem or will charging it do the trick? Should I do the whole filling it with distilled water thing that it says in the instructions???

Could something on the car be shorting out the starter because now I'm starting to think that I'm not getting bad parts from autozone but that my car is burning out the starters as soon as I put them in.

Anyone had anything remotely like this happen?

BTW it's a 88 TII.

Please any suggestions would be appreciated. Are there any tests I can do with the volt meter? I'm not too volt meter savvy but I'm looking to get better at it.

My5ABaby

iTrader: (7)

Are you getting voltage at the starter when you try to start your car? How about after the battery?

My battery shows about 11 volts but still manages to start my car.

BoostedRX

Ok how do I check voltage at the starter?

My5ABaby

iTrader: (7)

DMM. Positive terminal on the starter 12v wire, negative terminal on a ground (you can use the one on the starter).

fusion-turbo

Make sure you battery ground is solid. Electrical can be a pain in the ***, and from my experience its not so much your connections as it is your grounds (hee hee). So make sure you're grounded solid on the rear rotor housing. Its possible they sent you a few bad ones.. try checkers starters ive had better luck with their supplyer of reman. parts

BoostedRX

Ok, I got the new starter in today so I'm going to start doing some tests on everything form the battery to the starter. I'm going to be taking pictures also so that eveyone can have a better idea of what is going on.

I bought a new negative battery terminal cause mine was really ghetto'd up. lol

BoostedRX

ok so here is everything....I changed battery terminal

Was this:


Now it's this:


I took voltage of battery:


I put everything in the car connected the starter and took the voltage of the starter and it was also getting 12.8v.

Pic of testing starter:


BTW the R Terminal on the starter I think it's called. The black thing that slips over that copper flat thing in the picture. I had that connected. I took it off just so that I didn't have a crap load of things blocking the picture. Car is still not starting tho. I'm getting no sound at all. No clicking at least. I can here a very low hum sort of sound. Thats it tho.

I had the starter checked before I left autozone and it was working fine it kicked out and spun so it's not the starter. Battery is now fine. I'm thinking the ignition switch.

I did research and got this:


Also found the switch:


What does continuity mean and I'm not sure if my multimeter has a ohm meter in it cause the stupid thing didnt come with a manual.

My5ABaby

iTrader: (7)

You do have ohms as an option. It's on the bottom of your meter and looks like a horseshoe.

As a side note, my battery BARELY started my car this morning when it was about 10 degrees out. Looked like below 7 volts while cranking... Time for a new one I guess.

BoostedRX

Alright well that one step in the right direction. So I'm all ready to start running some tests but what numbers exactly am I looking for. I don't understand the FSM instructions on testing the ignition switch.

I'll post some pics tomorrow and hopefully the numbers I get are the right ones.

pengarufoo

this is quite simple, just put the volt meter on the battery and have it visible while you turn the ignition switch to "start".

If the voltage does not drop any significant amount your problem is not the battery, there is something wrong with the circuit.

If this is the case, the first thing you should do, is connect the positive lead of the volt meter to the small wire that leads to the starter, and have the negative lead touching the transmission bell housing - do this with the starter installed and all the wires connected *EXCEPT* the small gauge wire that leads to the starter.

Now, with the voltmeter hooked up and on, have someone turn the ignition to "start", you should see ~12 volts. If you don't see ~12 volts, you've narrowed one problem down to the circuit that controls the starter.

If you do see 12 volts when the ignition switch is moved to "start" then you've determined tat when this small gauge wire is connected to the starter solenoid, it should power the solenoid. Connect the wire and have someone try start the car - does the solenoid click? If it does not the starter is bad.

If when you tested the control circuit you did not see ~12V, then either the circuit is broken somewhere between where you are testing it at the wire and the battery positive post, or the ground is broken. The easiest way to determine this is to have your voltmeter negative lead go directly to the battery negative post, and repeat the test. If when you repeat the test it works it would appear your ground is no good, fix it. If it still does not work with negative test lead going to the negative battery post, the problem is more complex - upstream from the small gauge wire that goes to the starter, this starts to involve things like the starter relay and ignition switch.

That should be enough to get you somewhere for now, come back with results.

BoostedRX

Ok I did all the tests you asked and now I'm getting a sound from the starter. I'm getting volts on the small gauge wire. Something about like 10.7 volts on the small black wire that goes to the thin copper piece on the starter.

SouthSideSlider

i just went out and cranked by car and the battery gauge couldn't go anylower than it was and the dinger was hardly auditable but it still cranked.

BoostedRX

SOLVED!!!!! It was a stupid ground problem. Not to sound all religious and stuff cause my parents are the religious type not me, but I went to my room and prayed for about 5 min which calmed me down enough to get under the car calmly and find a nice fat wire that looked like it was supposed to be bolted down, but was just hanging out. I bolted it to the top starter bolt and BAM...it started.

Thanks so much to everyone who helped me out.

Most special thanks goes out to pengarufoo, m5ababy, and fusion-turbo. You guys replied to my posts and didn't flame me about me not knowing about my multimeter. I am forever in your debt. Couldn't do this without you guys.

fusion-turbo

Congrats. Enjoy

pengarufoo

glad to hear you got it straightened out, I suspected you had left the ground wire off.

SouthSideSlider

i did that with my equilizer when i first did it and i got all pissed when iyt wouldn't turn on so my stereo waxzs crap. i hate ground wires i always forget them