Starter trouble?

Over the past six months I've had this intermittent starting problem that has happened three times. I turn the key and the engine turns over very slowly, as if I had a dead battery. In the first two incidents the engine started after cranking over about three times. Afterwards the starter cranked normal. The last time it happened was about two months ago. Last night I drove the truck to work. When I left at 10:30 it started normally and I drove the 58 miles home with no problem. About a mile from home I stopped to fill the tank and afterwards it happened again only this time it didn't start.

I had jumper cables so I tried to get a jump from another guy getting gas but it didn't work, still cranked slowly. So I got an uber ride home for five bucks then drove back to the Chevron station in my car and tried to do the jump again. It cranked slowly then suddenly a bit faster and started. I drove it home, shut down and tried to restart and it cranked normal.

This morning I went out, checked battery voltage (12.43 volts) then tried to start and it just made a click sound but does not turn over. Furthermore, when I turn the key to start the battery voltage remains at 12.43 volts and does not drop.

So my guess is the starter is packing it in, I couldn't find any loose connections and the engine ground strap is secure. But if anyone has any other ideas I'm all ears.

Truck is 2001 D2 with 160,000 miles original starter, new battery and new alternator about 8 months ago.

This is what I'm looking for - someone who has had the same problem.

Since it seems to be permanently manifesting itself right now it should be easier to diagnose but I don't want to just start replacing things only to have it work but no absolute assurance that it's working because of what I replaced or just because it's working again. I mean, it worked again fine for months after happening with me having done nothing at all to correct it so what I want is a "smoking gun" here so I'm sure I've found the culprit.

Otherwise every time I turn the key I'm gonna be wondering if this is the time it's not going to work. Which is what I've been doing for the past three months.

So I need to treat this like a crime scene, try to devise some non-intrusive tests and not disturb anything. That is, unless I go out there tomorrow, turn the key and it fires right up in which case I'm hosed because it's pretty much impossible to find something wrong when it's not "wrong" at the time you're trying to find it. :ack:

number9 said:

...You wouldn't make a very good avionics/electrical T/S-er....

Click to expand...

Funny you should say that as it has been my profession for the past 30 years - LoL

True #9 this is why I'm glad it seems to have turned into a (non-intermittent) hard fault, so much easier to nail down and find that smoking gun that will allow me assurance that it has been corrected and is no longer lurking in the background waiting to totally eff up my day

Thanks for the offer Ed I'm in SF Bay Area. I can rebuild the starter and have no problem with the truck being inop for awhile just that it's in the driveway and it hasn't quit raining for three days. Might be able to get at it on Saturday if it clears up.

Antioch/Oakley

Well I found my smoking gun. I called the local auto parts store and they said they could get a starter by this afternoon - $99. So I pulled my starter and did a bench test - worked fine. Next I checked for 12 volts on the starter feed line and for 12 volts on the solenoid feed when I turned the ignition to START. Next I hooked the starter up to the feed line on the truck and connected the solenoid wire. I set the starter on top of the engine and grounded it with a jumper cable. When I turned the key - nothing.

Odd because I had 12 volts on the feed line and a good ground to the engine. So I pulled out my trusty old test light and found that it would not light when touching the feed line and grounded to engine. I checked the ground strap (for the third time) by giving it a tug but this time I noticed that the end connected to the body moved a bit. Then I found that the nut on the stud was only finger tight.

Yes, I'm the idiot who was supposed to have tightened that up when I did the engine swap.

Tightened nut, reinstalled starter and everything works fine now.

However - my parking brake is stuck on. After some research it seems that when the engine ground strap was not conducting somehow all of the power was going through the parking brake cable. Sounds crazy but I looked at the handle end and the plastic coating is melted and apparently I am not the first person this has happened too.

Anyway lesson is - if you have double checked the obvious, do it a third time :ack: