Saturday (March 9) ... Starter in Raleigh for Jason (FZJ80)?

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Rice

Rice

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Good morning.

Does anyone in the Raleigh Area have a spare starter Jason (FZJ80) can borrow until he can get home and get a contact kit installed in his?

He doesn't have mud access right now but can text him at 336-471-7176. He is not stranded in that he has a borrowed ride but would really like to get his 80 back home.

Solenoid contacts appear to be stuck closed (starting whenever battery is connected) and his spare starter is at home (High Point).

Jason's 80 is a 95. The rig is in Zebulon but I believe he can come get starter wherever you are.

Thanks.
Rice
 
I don't have a starter, but I can help get one from where it is to where he is.

I just texted jason.

Thanks for the heads up Rice!!
 
I've got one I borrowed from Clint (many moons ago, sorry Clint), can't vouch for the operation, I wound up rebuilding mine. I've got the take off parts also if a used part might help get it operational. I'm committed today so I can't deliver but close to Johnny if he can...
 
kulangot said:
Has he tried smacking it with a hammer? That has saved me many a time!
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That's worked well for me too. Jason said that he thinks the solenoid was stuck on, while driving, so it fried. Would need a really BFH to fix that :lol:

Mtbcoach said:
I've got one I borrowed from Clint (many moons ago, sorry Clint), can't vouch for the operation, I wound up rebuilding mine. I've got the take off parts also if a used part might help get it operational. I'm committed today so I can't deliver but close to Johnny if he can...
Click to expand...

Just texted him. Thanks for offering it up Jerry ( and Clint )! I'll let you know if / when I'll come over to grab it for him.
 
An awesome bunch of folks, every one of you.

:beer: Home brews for all. :beer:
 
custyota said:
Who's Jason? Insert Smiley with middle finger
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Most folks know him as Brodi's dad but he drives the locked trike with the OME handlebars

Jason.webp
 
Need some ONSC brains on this one.

Steps taken:
- Installed starter that I picked up from Jerry
- When ignition turned to start, ground wire at battery heats up and insulation begins to smoke, but the starter motor doesn't turn. However, you can hear the bendix clunk into the flexplate
- Took the jerry's starter out and swapped the motors with jason's starter ( jerry's motor on jason's solenoid, jason's motor on jerry's solenoid ) - reinstalled jerry's solenoid with jason's motor and found the same symptoms
- Measured current at signal wire - reads ~3 volts with ignition at ON and ~12 volts with ignition at START ( battery cables connected )
- Measured resistance between signal wire and frame with ignition at ON and found circuit open. Ignition at START shows 10-40 ohms ( battery cables connected )
- Measured resistance between hot lug on starter and frame and found ~10 ohms ( battery cables connected )
- Measured voltage between hot lug on starter and battery, found same voltage as battery, ~12.2 volts
- Connected starter signal wire on starter directly to battery ( eliminating signal wire short ) and found same symptoms as before, where ground cable at battery heated up and insulation started to smoke
- Tested spare starter on bumper with jumper cables ( jason's solenoid and gear reduction housing, with jerry's motor ) and found that not only would the bendix jump out, but the starter motor would spin the bendix as we would expect
- Suspected that the teeth on the bendix were not engaging the flex plate, so we turned the crank by hand for ~1 full revolution and retested, but found the same symptoms

We are going to go out there tomorrow and put the tested good starter on the truck and try again. If that doesn't fix the problem, then what the heck else could it be?

Thanks for the help gents :cheers:
 
Last edited:
JC, I thought about this a little more after we spoke and I'll bet this is going to be found to be a bad ground at the battery. Ohm out the negative battery post to chassis ground and make sure it is a dead short. If not, clean the post connection and the connection to the frame.

:beer: R
 
You have a bad ground somewhere or you hooked up the wires backwards on the starter:p I had a similar situation on a Z28 about ten years ago.
 
Did you try to run a jumper directly the starter? You could even do this with jumper cables. Clip onto the starter, then just touch the other end of the cable to the positive and see if it cranks. That would eliminate a short in the harness as a cause. I would use the jumper cables to jumper both the ground and the + feed.

My gut is that the large wire from the battery to the starter is bad. It may be corroded inside the crimp or have broken wires inside.

But like Ramon said, clean all of your connection first!
 
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charlestonfj60 said:
I have a used starter that I bought when I had an 80 as a spare. Send me a PM.
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Thanks man, but our starter tests well. Something wrong is amiss.

Mtbcoach said:
Stupid question...can you turn the engine over by hand?
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Not a stupid question. Yes, the motor can be turned by hand. We rotated the motor by hand for about 1 revolution in an attempt to line up the teeth on the flexplate with the bendix.

mtweller said:
JC, I thought about this a little more after we spoke and I'll bet this is going to be found to be a bad ground at the battery. Ohm out the negative battery post to chassis ground and make sure it is a dead short. If not, clean the post connection and the connection to the frame.

:beer: R
Click to expand...

Good idea, we'll check out the grounds. Thanks man :cheers:

lt1fire said:
You have a bad ground somewhere or you hooked up the wires backwards on the starter:p I had a similar situation on a Z28 about ten years ago.
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Feels like the wires are hooked up backwards, but believe me, they're not. The starter has a total of two wires, the main power and the signal. Literally impossible to hook up backwards.
 
GLTHFJ60 said:
Feels like the wires are hooked up backwards, but believe me, they're not. The starter has a total of two wires, the main power and the signal. Literally impossible to hook up backwards.
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Yeah I was just joking about that..... most likely a ground. The problem on my Z was the one cable was arching making it seem like they were hooked up backwards.
 
Thanks John! I ended up having some 4 gauge wire in my garage, so repaired the ends and used it as a test wire. Good idea for sure!

After testing every circuit, then bypassing both the signal and main power circuits to eliminate the possibility of a short in the vehicle's harness, we still had no luck with the starter that was composed of Jerry's solenoid and Jason's motor. We took the other starter assembly and bench tested it, and it passed. Ended up taking out the starter that was in the truck, then tested it the same way. It failed bigtime! Not only would the motor not turn, but the solenoid wasn't pushing out all of the way and the operation was erratic at best, not consistent like the other starter we put together.

Long story short, we installed the assembled starter ( Jason's solenoid, Jerry's motor ) and his truck started right up ( and shut down ) without issue!!!!! In the end, a bad motor in Jason's starter and a bad solenoid in Jerry's starter were the two components that gave us grief.

Thank you to TJ and his wife for hosting us for the weekend!

Thanks for the help fellow ONSC'ers!!!
 
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