About 3 years ago the starter on this Jeep got sluggish. Then one day it just didn’t turn over.
Had the battery checked - it was good. Had the starter checked - it was bad. Replaced the starter and life was good.
Or was it?
About 6 or so months later, same story, different season. New starter and it cranked like a champ.
The story continues. About every 5 or 6 months or so the starter gets sluggish. Last time I even went ahead and replaced the battery with the hopes I wouldn’t have to swap out the starter again. To no avail - the starter still needed replaced.
It’s starting to get sluggish again. I think this will be my 6th starter. OKay, I’m fairly good at replacing them now - they really aren’t hard to get to.
But what’s going on? Are the refurbished starters always all junk? Is there something else going on with the Jeep that’s causing them to wear prematurely?
Any ideas?
I would suggest you have a postmortem done on one of the failed starters. Look in paticular for the armature rubbing against the pole pieces. If there is a shiny spot on the armature and pole piece, check the nose bushing for wear and looseness. If there is wear on this bushing, look at the pinion to ring gear clearance because lack of clearance will cause accelerated wear on the nose bushing.
If the postmortem indicates another reason for the failure, have that specific problem renewed by an auto electric shop and see if the starter lasts longer.
Hope that helps.
A postmotem would be interesting. But unfortunately (really fortunately) the starter has a lifetime warranty, so every time I replace it I just pull off the old one and get a replacement free of charge.
If it were a clearance problem between the ring gear and pinion, how would that be corrected? Shims? The starter direct bolts to the housing like a c-face motor. Nothing in the instructions says anything about shims, but maybe they want to keep installation simple… Can this type of problem be diagnosed by looking at the pinion - i.e. wear on the pinion?
I do get some oil dripping on the starter. Maybe heat build-up?
First time the problem occurred the starter pull way excessive amps (measured by my auto parts store). I don’t remember how many, but it was like twice specification. Subsequent measurements on later starters sometimes should high amp readings, but not as high, and sometimes did not.
Whatever it is, since it seems to keep occuring I must have a chronic mismatch in the fit of the starter or a chronic condition local to the starter area.
Thanks for your input.
I figured you might be using lifetime warranty starters. Even if you do not take the starter apart, check the slop of the shaft at the pinion end bushing. If the clearance is more noticeable that the replacement, you can suspect that the nose bushing is wearing. There will be no noticeable wear on the teeth surfaces because the force caused by the tight engagement will not be enough to damage the teeth until they have worked together longer.
I am not familiar with “c-face motor”. If you mean the starter is mounted up to the engine block with bolts that are perpendicular to the axis of the starter, there a spacer shims that can move the pinion away from the ring gear. A way to check the clearance is to wrap the starter pinion with 3/32 inch solder; temporarily block the pinion into the engaged position; mount the starter up to its working position but do not connect the electrical; turn the crank shaft 1 turn by hand to get a good pattern on the pinion solder; remove the starter; and measure the squished thickness of the solder. If the solder is completely cut, i.e. no clearance, add shims until 0.010 to 0.015 clearance is obtained.
If the starter mounts up to the bell housing with bolts parallel to the starter shaft, shimming will not help. If the clearance test shows a lack of clearance, check the runout of the bellhousing to the block. It is possible that the bell housing needs to be aligned. There are offset dowel pins that can correct this.
Post back for more.
Sorry, hadn’t checked back here in several days. Thanks for suggestions.
Starter is still cranking, but also getting sluggish more frequently. Not that I’m a gambling man, but I’ve been busy, so I’ll gamble until one time too late or until I have some spare time on my hands. My guess is within the next couple of weeks…
The starter mounts to the bell housing with bolts parallel to the starter shaft. By C’Face, the bell housing has a hole with a machined recessed landing about 1/8" deep. The starter end has an extended mating hub that fits the hole and recessed landing in the bell housing “hand-in-glove”. Typically one should just bolt up with the expectation that everything should align just right.
I hadn’t thought about it before reading your suggestion, but the Jeep did get a new transmission a few years ago. Seems like it may have been several months before the original factory starter went out. Fuzzy memory - not sure. But the bell housing would have been disturbed - opportunity for mis-alignment?
I’m going to look that over. Maybe a lose bolt or something really simple would be just grand.
Curiosly the main rear seal started leaking oil within a year or so of the new tranny too (and still does). Also a possible symptom of misalignment?
i have had to do 2 starters in my 96 dodge Dakota[year and half] also had lifetime on starter when i got the new one i asked if this was common they told me that they only replace what they have to when they rebuild them