Hello Folks,<br><br>My brother has a 1998 Dodge Ram 2500 with 12 valve diesel with automatic transmission. Every once in a while when he starts the truck it makes a horrible sound in the starter and won't turn over. Almost the same sound you will hear when a car is already started and you turn the ignition key on. Or the same sound when your battery doesn't have enough juice to turn the starter over. We have had the battery and starter tested and it looks like everything still looks good. I just pulled the starter and replaced the starter contacts with super starter contacts and a new plunger. Any ideas guys???? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm thinking its either a starter problem or ignition problem

 

When you had the starter out how did the little gear on the starter look? Did it have one or two teeth a bit more worn than the others? If you take the starter out again take a look at the ring gear and see what the teeth look like. It may be advisable to slowly turn the engine one revolution when doing this and check all the teeth. My guess is that you have either a bad ring gear or a bad starter drive. Maybe both. If I am right then if you are lucky all you will have to do is install a new drive on the starter. Otherwise you will have to remove the flywheel and install a new ring gear. Yucky job! If it is necessary to install a new ring gear then ALWAYS also replace the starter drive as well.

 

Just a thought- <br><br>I recently replaced the contacts in my starter.<br>Didn't notice the ball bearing (about 3/8&quot; diameter) until I saw it sitting by itself on the bench. It goes between the plunger and starter drive. If it fell out, not only would there be more friction between the parts, but the drive would not engage the ring gear as deep as it should.

 

(B) Mexstan(/B) The starter gear looked pretty good when I pulled it out. Hope it's not the flywheel teeth. I wouldn't want to do that job myself. <br><br>(B) Vindiesel(/B)<br>When I replaced the plunger and starter contacts I noticed that the ball bearing was still in place where it should be. <br><br><br>One more thing for you guys to chew on. When the truck seems to have this problem a jumpstart usually does the trick. Again, I've had the batteries tested and the starter as well and autozone said that they are both in good shape. I'm going to check all the connections to see if there's something lose. Thanks again for all of your input. <br><br><br><br>[quote author=Mexstan link=board=16;threadid=16178;start=0#151919 date=1056236795]<br>When you had the starter out how did the little gear on the starter look? Did it have one or two teeth a bit more worn than the others? If you take the starter out again take a look at the ring gear and see what the teeth look like. It may be advisable to slowly turn the engine one revolution when doing this and check all the teeth. My guess is that you have either a bad ring gear or a bad starter drive. Maybe both. If I am right then if you are lucky all you will have to do is install a new drive on the starter. Otherwise you will have to remove the flywheel and install a new ring gear. Yucky job! If it is necessary to install a new ring gear then ALWAYS also replace the starter drive as well.<br>[/quote]

 

If a jumpstart gets you going I would now suspect that you may have corroded terminals on the battery. Don't just check for tightness. Actually remove both terminals, clean them and reinstall them. See if that makes any differnence and let us know. You may also want to check the opposite end of the negative cable and make sure that it is properly attached. Same with the positive wire going from the battery to the solenoid.

 

Thanks for the advice. I'll give it a try. <br><br><br><br>[quote author=Mexstan link=board=16;threadid=16178;start=0#152617 date=1056423186]<br>If a jumpstart gets you going I would now suspect that you may have corroded terminals on the battery. Don't just check for tightness. Actually remove both terminals, clean them and reinstall them. See if that makes any differnence and let us know. You may also want to check the opposite end of the negative cable and make sure that it is properly attached. Same with the positive wire going from the battery to the solenoid.<br>[/quote]