Starter Troubles

[VincentVega]

Alright guys, I'm stumped. I dropped a new starter on my truck about 4 or 5 months ago. It still spins the motor hard.. when it decides to engage. I'll turn the key, GP's will cycle like normal and then when I turn the last little bit to engage the starter, all I get is a click. I click it on and off a few times trying to see if it would decide to engage, but no Bueno. I popped the hood to check for loose connections and there was a bunch of smoke that come from around the starter solenoid relay. I'm at a loss. Anything would help. Thanks in advance

 

[DrCharles]

I popped the hood to check for loose connections and there was a bunch of smoke that come from around the starter solenoid relay.

Problem is either with the relay itself, or a loose/corroded connection at its studs. That's what's making it smoke!

 

[VincentVega]

Relay was replaced about the same time as the starter. Got a bug in my charging system back then and I thought I narrowed it down to that but bad diagnosis. Ended up being a broken wire, but that's beside the fact. Relay is new, starter is new, batteries, and battery cables are new.

 

[VincentVega]

Relay was replaced about the same time as the starter. Got a bug in my charging system back then and I thought I narrowed it down to that but bad diagnosis. Ended up being a broken wire, but that's beside the fact. Relay is new, starter is new, batteries, and battery cables are new.

 

[Thewespaul]

Did you replace both positive and negative leads?

 

[VincentVega]

Yes, both hot and ground are new

 

[VincentVega]

Starter was still under warranty so I went and exchanged it and turned out I had just cooked the "old" one.

 

[Macrobb]

Autoparts store starters are... cheap. They usually take old ones, clean them up, replace the bare minimum in parts and slap it back together.
'New' ones are similarly cheap - made in China by the lowest bidder.
This means that one might run for years, the next might die in a few days. It's just a total crapshoot.

Chances are that in your case, the solenoid failed or something; no power to the motor itself.
I've killed a couple that way; actually lit one solenoid on fire at one point.
(In my case, it was an unknown wrecking yard starter; replaced the solenoid with one off Ebay and it worked much better)

 

[chillman88]

Starter was still under warranty so I went and exchanged it and turned out I had just cooked the "old" one.

Yeah parts store remans seem to be hit or miss anymore. Had the same problem with a reman on mine. If it goes out again I'll take it to the local rebuilder instead so i know it's right.

 

[icanfixall]

Quality parts makes a big difference in the starting circuit. Many fender mounted solenoids "look" the same but are not.We had a member open one up at a rally some years back. they looked exactly the same outsides but. Internally they were not. the original Motorcraft one was far heavier and superior in every part compared to the china autoparts store replacement. Same goes for starters. A well maintained fuel system keeps pressure on the system.So you have no long cranking on first start each morning. My rig starts after maybe a week of not running on bout the first or second revolution of the crank. My fuel system has no air leaks and I run an electric lift pump.