Last week I posted that my '86 coupe would not turn over. All I was getting was a sound like the starter turning quickly, making sort of a grinding sound, but not wanting to engage and turn over. The starter was replaced by the prior owner in July '03, less than 15,000 miles ago. The work was done at a local garage, it's a NAPA remfg starter. It's been cool here, but was 70 degrees in Denver yesterday, so I tried to get it to start again, no luck. I jacked the car up to where I could get under it and look at the starter. The wires were tight and it all looked OK. There was a short copper-looking tube coming from the starter motor which were attached to a bracket on the starter - loose nut on there which I hand tightened. A suggestion was to tap the starter with a hammer - I gave it a couple light taps. I jumpered from my Dakota to the battery and tried to start after lowering the car. No luck - at first when I turned the key everything went black - the dash, hood lights, etc. I left the jumpers hooked up w/the truck running for 20 or so mins, but was back to square 1 when I tried to start. Auto tranny so I can't push start. I've got a pretty limited garage, so lifting and dropping the pre-cats and exhaust to get to the starter is really not an option. Maybe a tow to a shop is in order, but any suggestions on what else to do?

 

Well, hopefully you checked the battery or had it checked to make sure its not bad, cleaned your battery terminals good. I'm suspecting a bad starter solenoid-where as it's not engaging the starter gear with the flywheel-but still spins the starter gear. Could be a bad Bendix spring in the solenoid-if batteries good, connections are clean-time to replace the starter.BTW, hand tightening nuts on the starter is not an option.

 

check that starter... I had a 77 chevy truck with a 350 motor and went through 2 or 3 starters within a month before I found one that works... just because it was replaced does not mean it will work... it's almost 2 years old now... You can pull it off and autozone can check it to make sure it works....

 

If the lights went off when you hit the crank position, you clearly have a very poor battery cable connection to the battery terminals, or you have a battery at the end of its life! Remove the battery cables (neg first) and clean the cable lugs and the battery terminals until they are bright and reconnect (neg last). Starter motors draw 100+ amps and require a very low resistance connection to the battery. After the cables are back on, recharge your battery with a battery charger. Measure the battery terminal voltage while attempting a crank. During cranking, the battery voltage must not fall lower than 9.0 volts or your battery is discharged, poor cable connection, or the battery is at the end of its life.

 

all those aftermarket reman cheapo starters and alternators, you get from your local , autozone, pepboys , napa etc.. are all garbage, your best bet always is reman gm parts right from the dealer,

 

Thanks for the input. The battery was replaced with a new one last Aug or Sept '04, but I guess you never know when a cell might go bad. I made sure all the battery connections were clean and tight. I'll pull it out and have it load tested tomorrow, but I thought using the truck battery as a jump would surely be enough to start it if the battery was the problem. Of course, I also called the garage who replaced the starter - warranty good for 12 months/12,000 miles - that put it to July '04, and 3,000 miles ago.