had a small leak at injectors (fixed) and had to crank truck over for an extended time. Got it started, got it home, fixed leak. Next day no start, just a click from the starter when I turn the key over. I don’t have any electrical test equipment right now. So I took the starter off, hooked jumper cables to it and a wire from the small stud to the hot jumper cable. Starter worked. So I checked all the connections I’m aware off. Some of the strands of the small wire to the starter were broken at the connection, so I redid it. Put starter back in and it turned but slower than normal for 5 seconds or so. Then it quit and same click as before. Took it back off and hooked it back up to the jumper cables again. Nothing. Unless I just hooked the hot jumper to the starter itself. Then it’ll turn but the bendix won’t engage. If you’re still with me after my ramblings thank you. Am I on the right track In thinking the solenoid is bad? Part of its job is to engage the bendix, correct? My batteries are 3 months old and all my connections look ok. I’ve ordered one from D B electrical, had good luck from them in the past. Anybody else used them for these motors?
Starter help.
- Thread starter LoganS
- Start date
Randy Bush
Full Access Member
I would say pretty good chance starter is toast. Testing a diesel start out like that proves very little. They have to be tested under a load. Which why having a parts store test them is pointless. I have used ones from DB before , they where ok for the price.
bbjordan
Snow Monkey
You're probably right about the solenoid being bad. I've had more than a few problems with them. The quality on them has really gone down hill. The thing is, the price of the solenoid is almost as much as a reman'd starter.
Edit: changed bendix to solenoid.
Edit: changed bendix to solenoid.
Last edited:
bbjordan
Snow Monkey
Correct.
Also when fully engaged, the solenoid has a little disk in it that connects the hot (big connectors) on the solenoid to provide power to spin the starter. If this disk doesn't fully engage, or if there is corrosion/pitting/burn marks on the disk, then full power may not make it to the starter. You can test this by bypassing the disk by jumpering together the two hot (big) connectors on the solenoid after providing power to the small connector to engage the bendix to the flywheel. If it spins the engine over, the solenoid disk is definitely the problem.
Caution: can makes sparks.
In the old days, when you could disassemble the solenoid, a guy could clean up the contacts points, or just flip over the disk. Now it's just a sealed unit so you can't see how crappy they build it.
FWIW I thought I had a starter exhibit similar behavior to what you are describing and indeed my starter was dead, but I found that I also had one very bad ground cable and a couple pretty beat factory terminals. So I would definitely recommend double-checking the condition of all your batt cables and grounds.
