Starter question

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volaredon

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This doesn't pertain to an LA or magnum or a /6.
This is a newer truck/engine.
12 ram 1500 4.7
My original one is going out, I get that occasional "dead spot" when I hit the key that may happen twice today and then not act up for a week kind of thing.
I bought a new reman from eBay, replacement is a Lucas brand which has been around forever so I thought it was a safe buy. New reman, and half the price of any parts store in town.

I put it in and went to hit the key and the starter spins but the bendix makes no attempts to spin out and contact the ring gear.
One thing I noticed when I went to reconnect the wiring was that the small terminal (a plug in on this unit) is above the 2 big lugs where the original one is below the big lugs.
I contacted the seller and they surprisingly immediately issued me a refund and said they don't list one for my truck even though eBay listing said this one does ft my application.
They said "no need to return" since I did install it.

If this were a starter for an older model car/ truck I'd say it's almost like they forgot to reinstall the fork from the solenoid to the bendix.

My question is, although I didn't think much of the flipped position of the small terminal on the solenoid when I put the starter in, I'm wondering if I simply unbolt the solenoid and the other big lug (the wire that goes thru the starter body) spin the solenoid 180* and reconnect, if that might be all that's wrong with the new one? I'm thinking the constant hot needs to be on the other big lug as compared to how it came to me, for it to work right and energize when power is applied to the small lug?
 
Sounds to me like you are powering the main armature spinning, but not getting power to the bendix drive side.

Can pull it out and bench check it with a battery and some jumper cables.

☆☆☆☆☆
 
That's why ( and the fact that the small terminal is above the big lugs rather than below) I thought the solenoid might just be 180* out????
 
At this point I'm not out one red cent and they told me to keep it.... I think that clears me to try and flip it over and try again... They refunded me so essentially there's the "warranty" right there, right? They can't deny it because of "tampering" at this point...
 
If 'Lucas' refers to the British auto electrical company, they didn't get the nickname 'Prince of Darkness' for nothing....
 
The starter cannot be made to spin unless the start wire is activating the solenoid. I would say more a mechanical problem. I don't know if the 4.7 starters are different from the magnums, etc, or not. I would get it out, wire it up with jumper cables, etc, and see if the drive appears to fully extend. Then carefully compare it to your old one and see what's what.
 
Is there any "sound"..... a "chunk" type of noise??
I'm not suer of how this is mounted, but is it possible that a shim is needed.

If you loosen the starter...would it engage?? (obviously, just to try something simple)
 
Yes the starter motor does spin easily, as soon as I hit the key/ but the bendix doesn't kick in. I thought that I had said that already.
I have tried (not on this one) the screwdriver trick to "hot wire" starters on other newer vehicles before as a test at work, and when I jump the big lugs with a screwdriver (mostly Ford's, thats 97% of what I have to deal with there) I get the same results as I did on this starter via the key.


And Bewy--- I didn't know that about the Lucas brand, another longstanding familiar name that apparently is a shell of it's former self I guess..
I bought the one I did largely because I recognized the name. There were lots of others available, many "unbranded", many more I'd never heard of.
 
Michael Brisebois said:
Is there any "sound"..... a "chunk" type of noise??
I'm not suer of how this is mounted, but is it possible that a shim is needed.

If you loosen the starter...would it engage?? (obviously, just to try something simple)
Click to expand...
No, no shim on this type starter, if the bendix were to try to engage shimming would make the situation worse.
I put the other one back in for now being it does still work when the "dead spot" doesn't end up in the wrong spot....
 
When you jump the "big" terminals that does not test the solenoid. If you want an end to end bench test, you must ground the starter to the batter, and hook power to the top big terminal. Then jump power from the battery to the small terminal

And there's more to it. People often blame a solenoid when the starter is at fault, (not in this case) because of the "pull in winding" which is a trick

The solenoid actually has TWO separate windings: A large heavy "pull in" winding and a smaller "hold in winding."

The pull in winding draws a LOT of current and is designed to really snap the bendix into position as well as engage the contactor without sparking and arcing. THAT winding is connected from the solenoid start terminal to the STARTER MOTOR terminal (the bottom large terminal.) This puts that pull in winding IN SERIES with the motor and that means when the contactor pulls in, the pull in winding is then disconnected

After that, the "hold in" winding is the only one holding the starter in operation. This is a smaller, lighter winding which goes from the solenoid "start" terminal to ground

The point is, you must engage the small "start" terminal to be able to judge whether the bendix is being fully extended.
 
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