seancsnm
Newbie
The car is a 1989 Oldsmobile Delta 88. After grinding the starter trying to start a running engine the other day, my starter would sometimes simply spin and not engage the flywheel when I tried to start my car. It always engaged and started on the second or third try. So I removed and disassembled mine to see if anything could be done to help it.
Lo and behold, the teeth were ground down pretty bad, and the solenoid arm that engages the gear was in pretty bad shape as well. But why exactly the starter sometimes wouldn't engage is still a bit of a mystery. With the shape the components are in, I would expect grinding, but not complete failure to engage. My guess is that the solenoid arm/gear teeth got just bad enough to not quite engage.
So, any thoughts, comments, or suggestions to revive this starter, or is it pretty much shot? It spins up very nicely and starts strong when it does engage, so it'd be a shame to have to put down that much copper over 2 relatively small parts.
Lo and behold, the teeth were ground down pretty bad, and the solenoid arm that engages the gear was in pretty bad shape as well. But why exactly the starter sometimes wouldn't engage is still a bit of a mystery. With the shape the components are in, I would expect grinding, but not complete failure to engage. My guess is that the solenoid arm/gear teeth got just bad enough to not quite engage.
So, any thoughts, comments, or suggestions to revive this starter, or is it pretty much shot? It spins up very nicely and starts strong when it does engage, so it'd be a shame to have to put down that much copper over 2 relatively small parts.