Re: JPOR: Starter woes

[Obi-Wan <bvh@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Bench testing an amc starter (ford), buy removing it from the vehicle
> and attaching a negative battery jumper cable to the case and 
> touching the positive battery jumper cable to the starter batt
> terminal should result in some sparks at first contact, a big
> torque jump of the starter as it initally cranks up, and then
> a high speed starter spin.....if ther is no spin, somethins'
> wrong.

Ug.  I'll try it again tonight to make sure.  Maybe I should tie
it down before I crank it up so it doesn't jump all over, huh?

The battery that's normally in the Wag is 10 months old, but I'm
not convinced it's in good shape.  I should have it load tested.
I think it was installed by the guy I bought the Wag from, so maybe
he knows where it came from in case I need to make good on the warranty.

All the starter problems still occur with the perfectly-good Optima
from my YJ, though, so I doubt the battery is the root of the problem.
I'm picking up a used Optima for $50 on Father's Day.  I'd really
rather not wait that long to get the Wag running again, though.

> Ya know, the bendix wears out after a while.

OK, I'm new to starters.  What's the bendix?  Would a bendix normally
just quit all of a sudden with no warning?

> How old is the starter, miles ?

It's from a '77 Wag with 138K miles.  I've no reason to believe that
this is not the original starter.  I'm apparently not the first person
to have opened it up, judging from the chewed bolt heads and the poor
RTV seal around that side hump cover.  It was covered in crud, so it
hasn't been touched in at least a few years.

> Maybe its time to get a rebuilt starter.

Maybe.  What's a rebuilt starter go for, generally?

				-- Obi-Wan
				   '95.5 YJ, '77 Wag lawn ornament

-- 
Ben "Obi-Wan" Hollingsworth                               obiwan@jedi.com
"You know, he kind of looks like Yoda"  -- Jim Davis, about my baby Micah
            Anybody want to buy a Jeep XJ Dana 44 rear axle?