Well my starter frustrations continue, at the start of the December my starter kept on failing and I had to tap the solenoid to get the engine to turn over. So I went to Genos garage to get a new plunger and contacts, which I installed. The starter was working great for about 1100 miles and now I am back to the same problems. The starter will work for about 2-3 starts and then I will have to tap on the solenoid, and recently that does not even work. I am starting to think that it is the starter relay going out, so I have tried taping on the relay, but no such luck. Also I have tested the battery with a load on it and the battery seems fin but is a bit on the low side, so I put the trickle charge on it, no such luck.

When the starter works it fires first crank like any first gen and runs like a top. I just do not understand what would be the problem, could it be that the starter is just dirty and is not getting a strong contact? I am at a loss of ideas, so any help will be much appreciated.

 

have you checked all of your grounds and battery connections - it may seem like the starter but may actually be corroded battery terminals. Sorry I can't help but my starter issue was fixed with replacing the ground cable and terminals.

 

Did you replace the brushes when you rebuilt the solenoid? Sounds like a bad brush to me.

That part is near the end of BC847's write up in the Sticky:

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...d.php?t=141395

JP.

 

Do a loaded voltage drop on the cables and see if they are bad. I've had the same problem and found ground cable had almost 1.5v of drop!!!

 

How do you do that???

 

Check the voltage at the starter while cranking. Should be the same as battery voltage or very close.

 

Unplug the FSS so the truck won't start, (I think that'll work, right?! If not you need to find another way of disabling the truck ) then you are free to test every terminal and cable you can put your DVOM across!
I've been wrong before, and I'll be wrong again, but here's my version of the voltage drop test. Please edit/modify/improve as necessary.
To test voltage drop of a cable, just put a lead at each end, crank the engine and read the numbers. (It's really helpful to have a buddy with you, unless you have long arms or leads!) For a terminal, put one lead on the eye of the cable, the other on the post itself.
IIRC, there should be no more than 0.1V across the cables, 0.2 across the terminals. If you have any more than 0.5V total drop for the whole system, you've got a problem.

 

X2 I would never just replace the contacts without replacing the brushes along with checking & cleaning the armature.

 

x2 You can have a "dead" spot where the brushes contact the armature contacts and every time it stops there, you will have problems. A good shop can rebuild it for 60 to 70 bucks...Mark

 

I did not replace the brushes in the starter, as I was told that these starters usually do not need brushes. I did see the BC847's write up and it is quite good, however is it still possible that the relay could be the culprit. I am trying to weed out all possible scenarios to fix this. I appreciate everyone who has replied and will start weeding out all the possible problems. I do have a new negative terminal that I will be installing.

Thanks to all

 

Brushes x3 or so.

 

one of the DVOM leads goes on the batt terminal, the other lead goes to the component you want to drop test. you can use the same procedure for testing any electrical connection, relays, switches, wiring etc. Ideally there should be no more than .2 volt drop across any connection or run of cable.

 

Well guys I have replaced the negative battery cable and the truck fired right up and I checked my charging system and it was around 14V. I will be tearing into this starter to do the brushes. I was going to look at the brushes when I did the plunger and contacts but I was not able to get them out they were in there tight any ideas?

Thanks to all

 

When a starter fails and then you whack it with a hammer and it works, what the whacking did was to jar the dirty worn brushes into contact.

It is amazing how much good just cleaning the brushes and their ways will do for a sluggish starter.


Weak batteries and crappy cables/connections soon kill the starter contacts.

 

Well Guys I took your advice and took the starter off again to look at the brushes and sure enough. Well when I took it all apart there was dust everywhere and huge fingernail size chunks on the bottom. Two were completely gone and the other two were two thirds worn.

So here is my next question where is the best place to get brushes and for those of you in AZ is there a place locally that may have them? I have talked to fixinrams (aka Gould) they have brushes but I want to know the best place to get them.

Thanks to all