Kouta

So she gets up this morning to go to work and tries to start her car... nothing... car wont turn over, its like the starter isn't working.
Its not the car alarm nor the fusable link thats down there... i bypassed all those and still nothing. When ya turn the key to start it, its the normal power draw when you try and start it, but nothing is happening. I am stumped here... any advice?

brandizzle123

starter solenoid dead, ignition switch dead, um bad connections to the starter. check those things

Kouta

ignition switch should be ok, that just recently got taken apart for it just randomly dieing...
i need to find the starter and solenoid and stuff now... will take a multimeter and start checking things in a little. Have any idea what else it could be/what I could do to try and eliminate other things?
Yeah this post is pretty newbie, I just get stumped when it dosn't even try to start.

1987_Gxl

that happened to me once, except i had a FC .... try jiggling the battery cable on the battery, I had a problem.. I made ALOT of short trips, start the car, shut it off.... it ended up just outright Killing my battery, nothing could bring it back. got a new battery. does anything else electrical work on the car? could be that starter.

Kouta

all the normal electical stuff works... radio, headlights, turn signals, dome light, etc...etc...

1987_Gxl

do the lights dim at all when you turn the key over to try & start it?

Kouta

Yeah when i put it to 'start' rather than 'on' or 'accessory' the lights would dim like they normally do when it starts to crank.

Also i was just trying to test the ignition switch... and to me its all sorts of messed up, because everything but 1 wire seems grounded when there is no key in it.

Wires coming out of the ignition switch...
a: black/red stripe
b: red/black stripe
c: white/red stripe
d: blue
e: black
f: black/yellow stripe
g: black /white stripe

Maybe e isn't a ground... but if it is just with the multimeter, with the key in the 'on' position everything has continuity w/little to no resistance.

1987_Gxl

when was the last time you started it successfully?

Kouta

last night at about 4pm to come home from work.

brandizzle123

hit the starter with a hammer, if it works after hitting it, it needs to be replaced, this is quite common in first gens with my experience

Kouta

cool, thanks for the tip. smacked it, and it started up just fine... soo would it be better to just buy a reman starter, or look for a used one? probably reman, but thats kinda expensive.

rmriggin

reman should be fine. I think I might have a spare starter around. You could also check with kettle... He probably has one!

Kouta

yeah, but i bug kettle too much :p
plus how hard is it to change them? it seems fairly easy to me... just 2 or so bolts?

rmriggin

2 bolts and like one or two plugs. Real simple. I didn't even remove mine (kettle did that part when he helped pull my motor) and I was able to get it put back in correctly and fired right back up the first time. You could rebuild it if you feel up to it. Starters are easy! Just clean and lube stuff back up before you put it back together (di-electric silicone grease is great stuff). Speaking of wiring I need to do some ground improvement on mine! I got around to looking at where all my battery ground cables go and noticed after all this time that I only have one connection! I only got one cable from my battery ground and it only goes to the engine block on the side of the center plate! Maybe I can do some poor ricer type ground setup and run ground wires from my battery to everything possible... Well maybe not that far but I at least need to run some more grounds (to alternator case, to frame/body, to strut tower, to thermostat or water pump housing, etc...). Well good luck on getting it fixed! Oh yeah.... Buy my car already!

Kouta

Haha... well i was trying to then just dropped 100$ on a nice starter, and we going to start looking for a 12a for her car... sorry man. Its really nice, and i wish i had the funds to buy it
as for her car... damn thats easy, just glad i got one with a nice warranty and stuff... since i am paranoid :p

DJAngelicon

Kouta, Hi hey is your starter bro I just had that happen to me a few weeks ago. Everything working full batery power and all good but won't turn. I just got a nice one with gold tips which are stronger and installed it my self. First turn the car starts. I think I paid around $140 with tax but once I turn in my old started I got $35 refunded. So is not bad of a deal. I got the Botch one I think is called.


About removing it and reinstalling the new one was easy. Before you start disconnect the Batery wires. I think they said ground only but I do both just in case. There is one wire you unplug it have like a plastic connector. The next wire is kind of tiny it just plug into the top of the starter it have like a little metal connector where you just slide the wire into place. Then you have the Ground Wire and the other wire that go connected to the started. I just remove the plastic one, the one that slide into place and the that is not the ground. Pull it and becareful with your ground wire it should be strong so do get to scare. Clean the wires up and the connection area and install the new started the same way you remove the other one. Just backwards.

The only problem I had was trying to get enough strengh to losing up the bolts from the top which is the long one. Overrall it was easy and I can doit as many time lol.