Pretty sure starter just died... need your thoughts

[cooljess76]

Originally Posted by AlphaVortex

Good to know, thanks man.

Huge storm coming through, so I'm going to have to wait to keep working on this tomorrow. Gotta make sure to check all the ground connections and fuses before I plop down the money for a new starter. I'll try and keep this updated, since I didn't find anything quite like this while searching... so hopefully it can help someone else down the line.

Do me a favor and physically check the battery connections. Pull each one off the terminal and give them a light scrub with a wire brush. Also check the main engine ground located just inside of the passenger wheel well. It should be a heavy gauge wire going from the chassis frame rail to the passenger motor mount. Mine was loose and the metal was pitted from it arcing which caused a bad connection.

[familytruckster]

Might also want to check the wires on the starter to make sure everything is good, since you just had it apart.

[AlphaVortex]

Yeah I'll be double checking everything I can without tearing the whole lower manifold out, but I'm not holding out much hope it will be something simple like that. The fact that it just slowly died while trying to start it, and not just "all of a sudden" leads me to think its just dead.

[bimbim]

Check ground strap, or put on another. Get a battery charger. If it ever starts, put a VOM across the bat poles and see if you are close to 14v.

[cooljess76]

Originally Posted by AlphaVortex

Yeah I'll be double checking everything I can without tearing the whole lower manifold out, but I'm not holding out much hope it will be something simple like that. The fact that it just slowly died while trying to start it, and not just "all of a sudden" leads me to think its just dead.

It's completely unecessary to remove the intake manifold. You can get the starter out from underneath the car, just remove the dipstick tube.

[AlphaVortex]

Soooooooooooooooooooooooo...

After making this thread much larger than it needed to be, I found out that I had accidentally loosened the ground wire bolt on the alternator itself (the one between the motor and the solenoid?) while trying to initially disconnect it from above to take out the harness.



So to any one looking this up later... CHECK YOUR GROUNDS!