A trick I learned while living in Hawaii. If you are sure your getting power to the starter, the next time it won't start. Crawl under the car with a hammer and whack the starter. It may take a couple whacks or one. If it works. Likely the starter . If not , keep looking. My son nursed his Isuzu pick up starter this way for over a year. It was a stick so it was less complicated. Bearing wear causes a short in the armature/brushes and whacking it realigns everything. Couldn't hurt.

 

Sure

 

Iam not kidding. I even had a well respected, competent mechanic suggest that. It seems like a lot of people there knew this. I had never heard of it before, but I figure its worth a try. If you whack it and it works a few times, you have easily found the problem.

 

People have been doing this since electric starters were put into cars! Where the **** have you been? My MOTHER had a 49 Desoto and carried a hammer as a regular thing. Be careful because now starters have aluminum housings and you could break them! This usually helps when the brushes get worn and loose their tension.

Ya know, it used to be a normal thing to rebuild stuff like that, but you can't even find the parts anymore. You can if you have a maintenance shop and buy in bulk, but otherwise you're SOL.

 

Hell, a lot of transmission shops don't even rebuild transmissions anymore. They just replace them with one from the dealer or a rebuilder like Jaspers. They only rebuild if it's a rare model that can't be found, or under special circumstances.

 

Dave. As a 66 year old. I am not a young kid. Perhaps I have not been hanging with the right crowd all these years. I had not heard of this until I moved to Hawaii. I lived there 24 years and it seemed to be common knowledge among the youngest kid up to experienced mechanic. I am never afraid to admit that I don't know, or can learn something new and pass information on.

 

Okay, maybe I was a little harsh. I'm 71 and have been around cars since I was 15. My Dad was away at sea most of the time, so it became my responsibility to keep my mother's car running. When I got my license a year later, he helped me find a junker to fix up to be mine. It was a 37 Dodge barn queen covered in chicken **** and mothey carpets, but it ran! Two years later it had a 56 Dodge 315 "mini hemi" in it!

And you thought keeping a Jeep running was tough! Everything in that Dodge was cobbled up! My mission in life now is to pass on my experiences to the younger guys and a lot of the older stuff still applies.

I had planned on going to college to become a mechanical engineer, but my Dad, being a Naval officer, saw Vietnam coming and told me to join the Navy if I didn't want to find myself in a jungle, so I did. We couldn't afford college anyhow and I wasn't about to go for a Gov't loan.

 

Not harsh. Just grumpy. Looks like I have something to look forward to in 5 years.

 

So many old guys on this forum

but to backup what Dave said, it is fairly common knowledge to hit the starter. Works for fuel pumps too (hitting the tank). I limped my YJ home 100 miles on a bad fuel pump. I'd have to get out and smack the tank about every 25 miles. Only thing I had was a can of brake clean to serve as my striking tool. Good jeep times...

 

Not too grumpy and only 'cause I lost my wife AND job in 2008 and have been clawing my way along since then. I only have 2 brothers in FL and a cousin in OH left for a family. If I didn't still have my son living with me, I'd be a basket case. I don't want to get political, but living in a liberal state sucks also.

How about this one? My brother and I went hunting and he broke his steering box. It would steer left but not right. '75 Chevy Blazer. We took a hood spring off and attached it to the steering center link and drove it home VERY slowly.

 

This "old guy" runs in the area of 1000 miles a year. 6 miles almost every other day. I also spend upwards of 2 hours every other day in the gym. Up until recently I was surfing regularly in Hawaii. And not on a long board.Not bragging. Just stating fact. I am in better shape than most people half my age.

Dave. A gem can't be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials. I am sorry for your losses.

 

to close the loop on this turned out to be the starter. after changing it out zero starting issues. the one I replaced looked original so 20 years out of it is not too bad.

 

Thanks for checking in. I like to hear about happy endings.

 

Now that the starter is fixed how did we make out on the sanity check part?

 

The wife still thinks I have no sanitity. And I All ways appreciate a happy ending.