Starter testing (1 Viewer)

[mkfour]

My starter gave up on me Thursday. Or I'll assume my starter is the problem. For a month or two I've been having an intermittent starting issues. I crank, hear a click but nothing. After a few tries, it eventually starts. It's been worse in colder, weather climate. For the past several weeks, all has been well, but because I was having starter troubles, I went ahead and bought the starter contacts and plunger.

On Thursday, I crank, and hear louder than normal click/pop and no start. We'll I took out the starter and I'm wondering if there's a way to check the solenoid and the motor separately while the starter is out.

I read somewhere that I can put 12 V across the solenoid which will hook me up directly to the motor. This should cause the motor to spin. Does this sound right?

 

[Photoman]

My starter gave up on me Thursday. Or I'll assume my starter is the problem. For a month or two I've been having an intermittent starting issues. I crank, hear a click but nothing. After a few tries, it eventually starts. It's been worse in colder, weather climate. For the past several weeks, all has been well, but because I was having starter troubles, I went ahead and bought the starter contacts and plunger.

On Thursday, I crank, and hear louder than normal click/pop and no start. We'll I took out the starter and I'm wondering if there's a way to check the solenoid and the motor separately while the starter is out.

I read somewhere that I can put 12 V across the solenoid which will hook me up directly to the motor. This should cause the motor to spin. Does this sound right?

You don’t say what year you have.
Connect one jumper cable wire from the battery negative to one ear of the starter for a ground. Touch a wire from the battery positive to the small solenoid wire terminal. This will kick in the solenoid and should fire the bendix gear forward strongly. This crudely tests the solenoid only.
To crudely test the whole starter, connect a positive jumper to one large lug on the solenoid. This is the lug that does NOT go directly from the solenoid to the starter. Do not touch the starter body with the positive. With the jumpers connected hold or have someone else hold the starter down and then touch the first small positive wire to the small terminal on the solenoid. If everything is working this will shoot the bendix gear forward and also allow voltage through the solenoid to the starter motor itself. Since the big armature will spin you need someone to hold the starter so you don’t have to chase it across the garage.
To just spin the starter motor itself without the solenoid, with the negative jumper still on the ear, touch the positive jumper to the big wire going to the starter motor from the solenoid. Same advice on holding the starter. This tests the starter motor without the solenoid. HTH

Bill