I have recently been told I have a bad starter on my dodge causing it not to crank. My neighbor knocked on the starter with a hammer and got it to crank. I took advantage of that and postponed getting it fixed due to the cost and not being able to afford it at the moment. Now its at a friends and won’t crank and we tried knocking on the starter again and its not working. Is there another way I can temporarily get it to start again long enough to get it home without a tow bill?
That was your sometimes works once tap
You gambled and lost.
NOPE
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If it is a stick shift you could try push starting the engine using the clutch. If the starter solenoid contacts are causing the trouble (indicated by the hammer trick) then they will have to be replaced or just replace the whole starter.
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Unless you have a manual transmission, probably not possible to get it started at this point until the starter motor is replaced. There is some possibility I guess the problem isn’t the starter motor, but an electrical problem instead. If this is an automatic, try cranking in N rather than P. If a manual, try pumping the clutch pedal a few times before cranking, or try with different amounts of clutch pedal depression, see if that has any effect. If there’s somebody there who knows how to work a volt meter, they could measure the two terminals on the starter motor to see if they both read 10.5 volts or above when the key is in start. If they do, you need a new starter motor.
An experienced mechanic might be able to short the solenoid out with a screwdriver to get it to crank, but this isn’t something an amateur should try. Too dangerous. But no harm at this point to try tapping on the starter motor from a different direction, or a harder tap I suppose.
This is a bad idea because the armature on those are made of thin metal.This will eventually damage the internals and the starter will no longer work.You can call a mobile mechanic to fix it at your friend place or get a AAA membership card for the towing…its cheap!