This is a new thread off of my “How Long Should a Cranking Battery last” from last week. I took the advice and bought a 1000 MCA battery from Batteries plus, $100 which I thought was a decent price. They also said I was underpowered with the old 625 MCA.
So I hook it up,lots more power but still real tough to start. Finally got it fired up then it ran fine, but took lots of cranks. Now I’m thinking it is the starter. Even with the new battery the starter would turn a few times then stop even with the key turned. I shot some lube on the spindle but that didn’t help. To me, with a brand new battery the starter should be cranking as long as I have that key turned.
I didn’t put a voltmeter on anything but I felt the cables from the battery as far as I could and they felt fine, no breaks or substantial heat build up. Cleaned and tightened all the connections. What do you guys think, time to buy a new starter?
Starter brushes? When the starter locks up, keep the key turned and have someone lightly tap the starter housing with a wrench. If it breaks loose, it’s time for a starter rebuild. Most rewind companies in town can handle it, or just buy a new one.
“Banana Pants”
Indigo Bay 170
90 Johnson
Wilderness Ride 115
put a volt meter om the battery and have someone try to start the motor, watch the voltmeter and see what it reads. Leave the negative lead on the negative terminal and put the positive lead on the cable end on the starter solenoid, try again. Then put the positive lead back on the positive terminal, put the negative lead on the engine block, try again! You should find one test to show low voltage, that should tell you whats wrong. Its probably bad battery cables, replace them both if thats the issue, if the positive cable shows voltage drop, make sure to check the battery switch as well
Thanks guys, I’ve been researching this a lot over the past 24 hours. I really think it is the solenoid or starter but all the articles say to do the voltmeter testing. Of course everybody explains that process a little differently. I’m probably over thinking it and it will be more obvious once I start. My plan is to:
- Sand all the connections to bare metal
- Tighten them all down.
- Run the voltmeter test.
- Replace the cables, solenoid or starter.
- Go fishing
It is more than likely the solenoid. Disconnect the battery positive, connect both wires to the side going to the starter, then touch the positive back to the battery. Solenoid is about $ 30.00 I think.
To check the cables, just use jumper cables and by pass them.
If none of this works, it`s the starter.
using the jumper cables to bypass the battery cables is a good idea, use one cable at a time to determine where the problem is. Don’t try to bypass the solenoid though, it will spark pretty good and could hurt you depending on the load. If the starter will spin over, odd are the solenoid is good. Sounds like the battery cables.