87 GL Wagon PAINTED but Wont turn over :(

[Caramanos2000]

Ok guys this is the story:

Have an 87 GL Wagon, 1 month old battery in it. Car wont turn over at all, just makes a slight clicking sound. Tried to jump start it and nothing, added a wire between the positive and alternator and nothing. Then i tried jumping the starter from the positive on the battery and nothing. Had to push the car to start it, after its on it runs fine. Even when its off all my lights and elec. works good, it just wont turn over.

 

Someone told me maybe I have bad cable terminals and I should try replacing them, any other ideas?

 

Here is my baby and this is me

 

[MilesFox]

probably a bad starter. if its manual trans, then any other manual trans should work.

 

I have used a fwd legacy starter in an fwd ea82, exact fit, except for the terminal to the small wire, i just cut that off and used a standard female spade connector

[Caramanos2000]

Would a bad starter work out of nowere like it did today? I mean will it not do anything one day and then work the next?

[MilesFox]

the one i changed clicked a few times then would start. i moved it into the garage to change axles and lifters. it clicked again a few times intil the turned when i parked the car outside.

 

when i went to return the car o its owner, i just got clicks and nothing at all. I had to change the sterter to get the car going.

 

I informed the owner and he said there was ano start issue he had with no clicking at all, until it finally clicked and then turned over.

 

this is the one i replaced with the legacy starter, turned strong on the first try!

 

i'll bet if i disassembled the old starter and cleaned it up, it would work again.

[crazyman03]

Starters do that sometimes. They can act like crap and then all of a sudden work great for a while. I had one that for the longest time i had to tap it with a hammer (or a pop bottle worked great too) to get it to work and then it all of a sudden worked for like a month strait!

 

Push starting it works because it uses the alternator to start the car not the starter; so that's why that worked and nothing else. Everything else worked in the car because the battery (like it should) was fine. Just either replace the starter, or, if you are feeling froggy, try and diagnose what the exact problem with it is and replace that problem child.

 

 

-Justin

[Frank B]

could just be the contacts in the solonoid on the starter,

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=88627&highlight=starter

But it is best to just replace the whole starter with a new/rebuilt unit.

[backcountrycrui]

My 90 loyale had the kind of the same problem for the previouse owner.

 

They wired in a start button, and it works every time. The key however

 

only works one in ten. Just a little click and no turn over. Im not sure what

 

went wrong with it but the button works.

 

Mike

[bheinen74]

does sound kinda like the ignition switch took a dump.

[NoahDL88]

Push starting it works because it uses the alternator to start the car not the starter; so that's why that worked and nothing else.

-Justin

 

 

Actually, you use the drive train to turn over the engine, the alternator has nothing to do with it.

 

ever try to pop-start a dirt bike on a gravel hill?

[Caramanos2000]

does sound kinda like the ignition switch took a dump.

 

Thats what I thought too and thats why I used a jump wire between the starter lead and the battery positive terminal but it wouldnt do anything at all.

Will try cleaning all my connections and replacing my cable terminals and try again after tapping the starter.

 

Will a starter from an automatic fit my manual car?

[bheinen74]

starters are not usually the same auto vs manual.

one has to turn a flywheel, the other has to turn the torqueconverte so the way they engage is not same.

did you try to jolt the starter with a end of hammer?

[Caramanos2000]

starters are not usually the same auto vs manual.

one has to turn a flywheel, the other has to turn the torqueconverte so the way they engage is not same.

did you try to jolt the starter with a end of hammer?

 

Havnt tried it yet, at work.

[crazyman03]

I knew it was the engine/drive train that jumped it but i thought it was the alternator that would kick the first spark.. well it would if there was no battery..

 

 

-Justin

[Caramanos2000]

Sanded and re did all my connections at the battery, starter and alternator. So far its working good. Any ideas of what it could of been, before doing this my voltage was around 14v on my dash needle and varied depen ding on the vehicle rpm. Now its constant at just above 12v. Before doing this the car would also jerk when turning to the right, now thats also stopped.... coincidence?

[crazyman03]

Sanded and re did all my connections at the battery, starter and alternator. So far its working good. Any ideas of what it could of been, before doing this my voltage was around 14v on my dash needle and varied depen ding on the vehicle rpm. Now its constant at just above 12v. Before doing this the car would also jerk when turning to the right, now thats also stopped.... coincidence?

 

Sounds like there is a bit more going on than just the starter. Granted, I would say the starter is the reason why it wasn't starting. But alternators too, can be rather funky. If/When you notice your voltage needle jumping/falling again, double check the voltage at the battery and at the alternator. The alternator could be going out as well. Its a very common thing to go out on these 'roo's. When you check the voltage, have someone (or yourself) rev up the engine. the voltage on the dmm should do the same as your dash needle. if not, then your voltage indicator is going out.

 

I've had dirty connections do this too. cleaning it may have just fixed the problem. If the voltage regulator cant get a good reading from the battery as to weather or not its getting/keeping a charge, It will "full-field" itself to keep up with the demand. dirty connections will give an improper reading.

 

 

-Justin

[TRAVIS75]

I used to work at at a place that specialized in batterys starters and alternators, we were just a 3 person operation, the owner/secretary her son and myself. We did alot of general repairs on all makes and models of starters from automotive all the way up to 50mt starters for big d9 cats. This particular starter on your sub, if its the same as mine, a Nippon Denso G/R starter, in my opinion was one of the best starters ever built until they came out with PMGR (permanent magnet gear reduction). Of the hundreds of the ND's that I ever looked at least 95% of them all they ever needed was too have the 2 contacts in the silenoid replaced. Over the 1000' of times its started, it pulls a copper plunger down to make contact with the contacts one on each side of the silenoid, pure repetitiveness of this causes the copper contacts to gradually wear thin till eventually it doesn't make complete contact with both sides. At this time it will just click, sometimes several times, till the plunger happens to rotate enough when being pulled down to make contact again with both contacts.

 

This is a very simple fix, and at least when I used to do it 10 years ago, contacts were fairly cheap, about 7.50 each. If you decide to take this upon yourself to do, be very careful that you don't crack plastic insulators between contact and inside of silenoid (these parts are available as well and just as easy to replace). Pay close attention to the order in which you take this apart. While you've got it apart, the plunger and shaft attached to it(all one piece) should be taken to a wire wheel and buff the bottom side of the plunger can also be done with a piece of emery cloth, but wire wheel is much quicker. The whole process of fixing this takes about 20 minutes (not counting starter removal time) but take your time, i've done this 3 times on my current starter, and to this day, its all i've ever had to do to it.

[zyewdall]

Have you measured the battery voltage (at the battery terminals, not with the kinda iffy voltage guage in the car?). It sounds to me that it could be a very low battery that's not getting sufficiently charged... that would cause weak clicking when trying to start it too, even if the starter's good. Or, it could be a bad starter. Or a bad cable between the starter and the battery. They would all have very similar symptoms (I've had all of them on various cars...).

[Yo'J]

Another thing to remember is that the three, starter, battery and alternator usually end up dying around the same time, like with in a year. They are the electrical system for the most part, so when one is going they wear out the rest.

[Gloyale]

I used to work at at a place that specialized in batterys starters and alternators, we were just a 3 person operation, the owner/secretary her son and myself. We did alot of general repairs on all makes and models of starters from automotive all the way up to 50mt starters for big d9 cats. This particular starter on your sub, if its the same as mine, a Nippon Denso G/R starter, in my opinion was one of the best starters ever built until they came out with PMGR (permanent magnet gear reduction). Of the hundreds of the ND's that I ever looked at least 95% of them all they ever needed was too have the 2 contacts in the silenoid replaced. Over the 1000' of times its started, it pulls a copper plunger down to make contact with the contacts one on each side of the silenoid, pure repetitiveness of this causes the copper contacts to gradually wear thin till eventually it doesn't make complete contact with both sides. At this time it will just click, sometimes several times, till the plunger happens to rotate enough when being pulled down to make contact again with both contacts.

 

This is a very simple fix, and at least when I used to do it 10 years ago, contacts were fairly cheap, about 7.50 each. If you decide to take this upon yourself to do, be very careful that you don't crack plastic insulators between contact and inside of silenoid (these parts are available as well and just as easy to replace). Pay close attention to the order in which you take this apart. While you've got it apart, the plunger and shaft attached to it(all one piece) should be taken to a wire wheel and buff the bottom side of the plunger can also be done with a piece of emery cloth, but wire wheel is much quicker. The whole process of fixing this takes about 20 minutes (not counting starter removal time) but take your time, i've done this 3 times on my current starter, and to this day, its all i've ever had to do to it.

 

+1 to all this.

 

in 15years, I've never had to replace a subaru starter. No start problems have always been either a bad battery connection/low voltage issue, an ignition switch issue (EA cars), or the worn contacts mentioned above.