1989 dolphin rv does not start after driving around alot

MY 1998 DOLPHIN RV WILL NOT START UP AFTER I DRIVE IT WHEN IT IS HOT OUTSIDE. MY HUSBAND PUTS WATER ON THE STARTER TO COOL IT DOWN AND THEN IT STARTS. WE DID ALOT OF STOP AND GO IN HOT WEATHER THIS WEEKEND WHEN WE HAD THIS PROBLEM. THE HOOD OF THE CAR WAS HOT.

LAST YEAR, WE HAD THE SAME PROBLEM AND WE REPLACED THE STARTER WITH A REBUILT ONE FROM NAPA AUTO PARTS. COULD THIS ONE BE DEFECTIVE? WE DO NOT HAVE A MECHANIC THAT WE TRUST IN OUR TOWN OF LOS ALTOS CA. MY HUSBAND SAYS LIVE WITH IT AND I SAY THAT THIS IS A PROBLEM THAT NEEDS TO BE CORRRECTED. WE NEED AIR CONDITIONING IN THE SUMMER. WHAT COULD IT BE? I APPRECIATE ANY HELP.



LOVJERRY

I know I am a pest about it, but ALL CAPS are difficult to read.  Using standard case and paragraph spacing makes messages much easier to read.  Making them easier to read means more people will read it and you are more likely to get a good answer.

The problem is called heat soak.  While it is possible that a specific starter may be more sensitive to it than another and that rebuilt starters are not all good, I would suggest that your mechanic may need to work to get the starter cooled better.  On some RV's those starters can be somewhere that can get very hot.

That starter may be ‘heat soaked’.

Try mounting a heat deflector between the starter and the engine.

Another thing to look at is the battery.

If this one is 4-5 years old you may want to think about replacing it as it may not be holding a full charge when hot.

Before replacing it, remove/clean and reassemble wrench tight ALL the battery cable connections.

The battery cable to starter connection is one most ignored by vehicle owners. Simply because it is harder to reach.

Sorry Joseph, I missed your short sentence about the heat soak.

Is this the one that’s a V6 Toyota pickup as a base vehicle?

Starters can be defective right out of the box. If the starter is hot right after driving around the lot, you might want to start the RV cold, shut it off immediately and see if the starter is hot right then. If it is, then it may be the problem. If the heat is coming from the exhaust, build a steel shield and use a muffler clamp to put it on the exhaust pipe. Use heatproof sealant to stick heatproof gasket material onto the shield. You have to drill two sloppy holes for the ends of the U bolt to go through. It works on 351 and 460 M engines by Ford.

Thank you for your reply. i will remember not to use all caps in my emails. I guess that I have heat soak on my starter because my temperature guage does not register hot. I will talk to my mechanic.

This is a V6. Also, the heat guage does not register hot. On hot days when I stop alot, such as wine tasting in Napa last weekend, it will not start up for awhile or until my husband pours water on it. Should I ask my mechanic to put in a factory starter? and then proceed to put reflectors around it to sheild the heat? Last year I replaced it with a rebuilt one. Any info is appreciated on this old Dolphin.
Thanks,
Lovjerry