Starter won't disengage

[1987cp]

:lol: Probably picked it up from reading articles by bicycle people who use aft, starboard, port, inboard, outboard ..... :3gears:


Though come to think of it, "aft" is slightly more precise than "behind", since it inherently specifies a frame of reference, and I find that helpful sometimes.

[Donal]

Well, my brother and I spent several hours this afternoon/evening, trying to get that blasted starter off. We had no success at all. Got the wires disconnected from the solenoid, then ran into a big brick wall. I admit , very freely to not being any kind of mechanic, and I just can't see how this bolt(I hope there are only a total of two)is going to come out by any of the means that have been suggested. There is such a jungle of frame and components between the starter and the fan shroud I don't see how anything can penetrate it. I saw mention of a starter, or half moon wrench in a couple of places, and it looks like it would be very helpful, but where to find one without doing mail order. On the way home, I had the idea that I might try fabricating some sort of simple tool. If I can't come up with anything else in the mean time, guess I'll give that a shot. Had I realized it was going to be this big a problem, I would have had it towed to a garage and paid to have it done. Had I realized it was going to be such a hassle, I prolly wouldn't have bought the car. If any of you guys have any expertise at this, and want to stop by Urbana , Ohio tomorrow and help out, you'd sure be welcome.

[1987cp]

Do you not have a long stack of socket extensions? Because that's the only requirement to using the method I described. It helps to have a wobble extension on the business end, but I don't think that's a rigid requirement. I think I normally end up stacking mine together till they're about 20 inches long overall.

[Piece-it pete]

Too bad Urbana's not a little closer. When I messed up my top bolt, I just used a 12" blade on my recip saw and cut the top ear off the starter. Once the starter's out of the way getting the top bolt out is easy. Not Ford mechanic certified obviously

Pete

[Donal]

Well,
Decided to let someone else change out the starter. The mechanic up the street from my brother said he would do it, but then he didn't and he didn't and he didn't. So I called another mechanic. He said he'd do it for fifty dollars. I said ok. Only drawback was, I had to have it towed to him. Cost me seventy dollars. But he had it done a couple hours later. BUT, apparently the remanufactured starter was not good. He said it would turn over and start, but when he tried it different times, it would sometimes just click. He took it off, and I returned it. I went to another parts store and bought a new starter, as he suggested. I dropped it off and expect it'll be done in the morning. I do have a question. The old starter had a very strong burnt smell. I had it tested and the guy said it blew a fuse on his machine, so it was indeed bad. The remanufactured starter that I returned, the guy behind the counter smelled of it and said it had been burnt up, and he let me smell it. It did have the same smell as the original starter ,only not as strong. What I'm wondering, is there something that would cause these staters to burn up, or did I indeed just get a bad remanufactured starter?

[Donal]

Also, I had expected the gears on the old starter to be all chewed up, but they weren't. They actually looked pretty good.It's a puzzle to me. Anybody got any ideas?


Thanks,
Don.

[sly]

starters can burn up if they have too much load on them... or they are too weak. I think the reman probably burned up whatever POS solenoid was on it. Gears don't typically wear out on these unless there's a broken part of a tooth on either the starter or the flywheel or it's not aligned properly (something is bent). You should probably check that you're getting good voltage under load to the starter (it should read really close to battery voltage during start or the cables/connectors may be bad). I'm betting you just got a bum rebuilt one. The new one will probably sort it.

[1987cp]

I would have no reason to suspect a starter that just quit working of having the gear chewed up.

[gadget73]

usually the only way the gear chews is if the relay welds shut and the starter keeps spinning after the engine starts. Takes a fair bit of run time to do that though.

[Donal]

Ok. Got the new starter and it is on the car and everything is looking real good. Car drives really well. Got some more maintenance type stuff to do, then I'll be set. Couple things I'll be looking at repairing pretty quick is the odometer and trip odo don't work, the speedo does. And the power antenna won't power up or down. I'm beginning to feel really good about this car!

Don.

[gadget73]

The early 90s cars had plastic gears inside the cluster to drive the odometer. Its common for those to break and cause the odo to not work. Theres some site that sells them but I forget where. I want to say they're like 30 bucks a pop or something.

[85crownHPP]

...or did I indeed just get a bad remanufactured starter?

Its always very possible... I'd say a good stab at a statistic would be to say that 1 out of 10 re-man parts are bad out of the box, or will fail very soon. lol...

[Donal]

Drove the car today and am still very impressed. My brother drove it and liked it too. Filled up on gas- let the pump shut off when full. Drove 30+ miles and filled up again-letting the pump shut off when full. Took just a hair over one gallon of gas! Think I'm going to be really satisfied with this car.

Don.