Battery cables can cause starter problems as well, inspect the cables for corrosion, melted or bulged insulation, a starter's lifespan can be shortened if a high resistance connection exists. Starter motors have gone through many changes as they have evolved from a hand crank protruding from the front of the vehicle.
The starter motor became an industry standard soon after the first internal combustion engine was used a motor car. In the yearly years of production starter shims where used to help gear mesh, today these shims are not needed.
Home Articles Starter Motor Replacement. How to Replace a Starter Motor. Step 1 - Lift the hood and remove the negative battery cable from the battery making sure the cable end is clear of the battery to avoid an accidental connection. Negative Battery Terminal Removal. Removing Starter Terminal Cover. Starter Terminal. Remove Starter Trigger Wire. Removing Positive Battery Cable. Removing Starter Mounting Bolts. Remove Starter. New Starter.
Installing New Starter Motor. Installing Starter Mounting Bolts. Tightening Starter Mounting Bolts. You may need to snake the starter down and around other components of the engine to place it properly. Insert the starter retainer bolts. With the starter in place, slide the two retainer bolts through the bracket on the engine and the starter.
Connect the wiring to the starter solenoid. With the starter secured in place, reconnect the wiring you disconnected from the old starter onto the terminals on the new one. If your new solenoid has four terminals but your old one had two, only utilize the top and bottom terminal on the new solenoid. If your old one had four and the new one does as well, connect them to the same terminals they were connected to on the old one.
Reconnect the battery. With the starter installed and wired, reconnect the black cable to the negative terminal on the battery and tighten it in place. Insert the key into the ignition and attempt to start the vehicle. Check to ensure all of the wires are securely connected at either end, then start the vehicle again.
Part 3. Listen to the vehicle as you attempt to start it. As you turn the key in the ignition, listen for the sounds the engine makes to help determine if you have an issue with your starter. If the engine does nothing, the battery may just be dead. Ensure the battery terminals are clean and secure. Check the battery terminals to ensure there is a strong connection between the terminals and the cables.
The cables should be securely held in place and should not be able to wiggle or be removed from the terminal without loosening the nut on each cable. Clean corroded battery terminals with a steel toothed brush to ensure a strong connection. Wear gloves when cleaning battery terminals to avoid getting battery acid on your skin.
If you suspect the battery may simply be low on power, try charging it using either a trickle charger or another vehicle to jump start it. Be sure to connect the red cable to the positive terminal on each vehicle and the black to the negative. Check to see the starter solenoid is bad. The starter solenoid transfers power from the battery to the electric motor that starts the engine.
If it fails to transmit the electricity, the starter motor will fail to function. Test the starter solenoid by touching a test light to the lower terminal on the starter, then ground the negative cable to the body of the car. Have a friend turn the ignition key and see if it lights up. If the test light does light up, it means the solenoid is good, but the starter itself may have failed.
Tom Eisenberg Auto Technician. Tom Eisenberg. If your starter isn't working, try hitting it with a piece of wood or a hammer. This might loosen up the starter enough so you can drive your car to a repair shop to get the issue fixed.
Not Helpful 0 Helpful 1. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. You Might Also Like How to. How to. If the solenoid doesn't pull in and energize the armature, try jumping directly to the motor's armature post, bypassing the solenoid. If the armature spins, the problem is in the solenoid or its wiring.
Don't forget that some antitheft systems will still disable the starter even if the crooks hot-wire the ignition key. And when something goes wrong with that alarm, you're stranded. It gets worse—it's usually difficult or impossible to disconnect the alarm, in order to keep the car thieves from doing so.
Be prepared for serious reading of the factory shop manual or, if your alarm is aftermarket, a return to the alarm installer. Regardless, you've determined that the starter is fried.
Time to get to it. You might get lucky, especially if you have an FWD vehicle, and be able to swap starters from above the car. If not, the starter usually lives in a really remote location well underneath the car, somewhere near the side of the transmission.
Don't try to do this on a hot car—which might seem to be superfluous advice if you can't even get it started—but invariably the exhaust system is nearby, and burns hurt. Also, protective eyewear is de rigueur, because you'll be dropping flakes of rust and underhood dirt from directly above your head into your baby blues.
While you're waiting for the car to cool off, chock the wheels and jack it up a foot or so. Ramps will work, but I prefer a pair of sturdy jackstands. On the other hand, I've also been forced to do this in the middle of a muddy field by scooping out a trench to lie in. Remove the battery ground. Now you can go below and remove the wires to the starter. There will be a fat wire from the battery or, if your car uses one, an external solenoid.
There will also be one smaller wire, either a ring lug on a stud or a spade lug, from the ignition key. Older vehicles with points-and-distributor ignition may have a third wire to the coil, bypassing the ballast resistor.
Don't get them confused. Now get a socket and ratchet and probably an extension, and remove the bolts holding the starter to the block. You may also need to remove a heat shield, brace or sheet-metal cover to get everything loose. Don't drop the starter onto your head as the last bolt comes out; it's as heavy as a bowling ball.
Don't get out from under the car just yet. Mark one tooth on the ring gear with some spray paint or even chalk, and inspect every single one of the to teeth by turning the engine over with a big screwdriver for one full revolution. Seriously damaged teeth will require replacement of the flex plate or flywheel, which commences with removing the transmission from the vehicle. Fear of the necessity of this should motivate you to fix a balky-but-still-barely-working starter before it damages the teeth.
Labor to remove the transmission and replace the flex plate or flywheel will be 6 to 8 hours, more if you have four-wheel drive. Add in the cost of parts and a ring gear replacement could easily reach a thousand dollars or more. Take your old starter motor to the auto parts store and exchange it. Don't be surprised if the new starter bears only a faint resemblance to the older one.
The industry has been transitioning to smaller, lighter gear-reduction starters that use a higher-speed motor coupled to a planetary gearset to spin your engine faster while using less current. The new starter will have grease already in places where it's needed, so no further lubrication is necessary or desirable. Replacement of the new starter is straightforward, at least if your vehicle doesn't require shimming the new starter see page Snug up the mounting bolts, reinstall any braces, covers or heat shields, and hook up the wiring.
All you need to do now is reconnect the battery ground, take the vehicle off the stands and start 'er up.
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