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I'm getting really good at putting starters on my truck

Squisher

Squisher

Lifer
Remember the last thread where I got a bum starter from Murray's, but it bench tested OK and some here thought I had a bad battery. Well, I installed a new battery (just to be on the safe side) and put the starter back on with dielectric grease on all the electrical connections and it worked fine for about a month.

Friday, the daughter goes to take it to work and it won't start just like last time. So, I figure I'm going to make my stand at Murray's and get a new starter. The guy there was super cool and gave me a new starter (unlike the beotch that tested it the last time) with no problem.

When I pulled the starter off in April, the bolts came out like mud. I looked at the bolts then and the bolts (I assume stainless) had picked up a thread and had some aluminum embedded in the threads. I cleaned the bolts with a thread file (it's nice having my work tools at home now that I'm retired) and have been using them since, but they still needed a ratchet to be put in and taken out. So, I threw some grease on them and got out my air ratchet (again a work tool) and worked them back and forth to loosen up the threads (no 8mm tap). Now, I go install the starter and the threads are stripped. I can only figure the bolts were stretched and I basically just smushed the threads out, but I was looking for chips and didn't see any. Oh well, back to the store to get some SS bolts, SS nuts and washers, luckily there was access for the nuts to fit on easily.

I get the starter on, attach the battery, and go to start it. Ziinggggggg, zinggggggg, zinggggg. Fuck! Take the starter back to Murrays' and they bench test it. Bad bendix.

Finally, put it on this morning and it started fine.

If you told me to change the starter on a '98 F150 I bet you'd be surprised at how fast I was at it.

*************************************************

Well, here we are in the spring of '11 and I got to put another starter on the F150 this morning. Luckily it's only been 9 months since I got the last one from the Ford dealer. When will this madness stop? I'm seriously considering putting an aftermarket high performance starter on from someone like Powermaster.
 
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lol that totally sucks. Maybe you shouldn't get a starter from Murray's anymore.

At least you could put nuts and bolts on yours, so many cars don't have the room for a nut and bolt setup.
 
for the record i've seen five remanned starters put on the same car in a two year period (that would be my max- certainly seen many repeat failures). is that what you're getting? i might bite the bullet and get a brand new one.

if you have the problem again, i would check vdrop across both battery cables while cranking, and also be sure that the wire going to the solenoid is hot. best to rule out any other problem while you can.

i'd also recommend helicoiling the threads for your starter bolts so that you can mount it in a factory manner.

actually, wait, this is a ford truck? with the remote start solenoid? have you tried replacing the solenoid, or at least giving it a smack when the truck won't start?
 
I learned from hard experience not to buy remanufactured starters and alternators to put on anything I need to depend on. Unless there is no choice I just buy new. It will keep you from having to do the same job over and over most of the time.
 
The problem with most auto parts store rebuilt parts is they are not really rebuilt. They are cleaned up and reassembled from bins of parts that tested good when taken out of the returned cores. They replace certain items like bushings/bearings but the parts that typically fail are sometimes high mileage used parts cleaned up to look good. If you want a rebuilt with quality you have to go to a place that specializes in rebuilding the item you need. The nice thing about these places is they usually also sell all the parts you need to rebuild your own part and you can save a nice chunk of change.
 
Originally posted by: 69Mach1
I learned from hard experience not to buy remanufactured starters and alternators to put on anything I need to depend on. Unless there is no choice I just buy new. It will keep you from having to do the same job over and over most of the time.
Click to expand...

I have a remanned alt on my lincoln. It's been charging fine for a year and a half and a fiar amount of miles.

If it goes bad in the next couple years, though, I'm gonna go new on it. It's not really a big deal for my car - if it goes bad I can always get going with a jump, and on the ford modular 4.6 it's a trivial job to replace it.
 
Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
Stop buying shit aftermarket parts.
Click to expand...

I've been mumbling that to myself for three days along with something about groundhog day.


It was a Bosch starter and the best one they keep in stock, with a lifetime warranty. Next time though I think I'll go to NAPA.
 
Junk yard starters and alt's is where I get my stuff. Most will check and be sure they work for you, for free, and in 99% cases will outlast a cheap rebuilt by MR Magoo, who doesnt pay attention and slaps shit together, and lucky it works when they test them, and then you become the final tester if it was done right.

I assume you was smart and got the lifetime warranty brand, and not the 90 day or one year one?

When this one goes, find a junkyard and get one from there at half, if not less cost, already broken in, ready to go. Sure its used, but for me, I have yet to get a dud starter or alt from the junk yard, and your helping the planet and saving money all together. And most will take it back should it go out in a month or so.
 
Most places, like AZ/advance/etc.., have 3 styles.

1. Rebuilt. Like Ronstang said it is just cleaned up and replace some common parts.

2. Reman. It is stripped and all wear items are replaced. the biggest thing to be reused is the body(outside metal).

3. New. everything is new and made including the body.


I never used rebuilt unless I had to. I did mostly Reman and a few new. Rarly had any issue and some of those were other problems.
 
Originally posted by: Squisher
Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
Stop buying shit aftermarket parts.
Click to expand...

I've been mumbling that to myself for three days along with something about groundhog day.

It was a Bosch starter and the best one they keep in stock, with a lifetime warranty. Next time though I think I'll go to NAPA.
Click to expand...

I have a friend who used to own a Mustang. He kept buying water pumps from NAPA Auto Parts but they kept failing. He'd have to replace that thing every year. I also had a Mustang GT at the time and when my water pump failed I put in a Ford water pump and never had to deal with it again.

Go to the dealer and spend the money on a new part. That water pump cost me twice what the NAPA part cost but it was well worth it IMO.
 
By hard experience I mean things like: 4 starters on a '76 Ford F150 in less than a month, finally wised up put on new, no problem for 5-6 years, still going when I sold the truck. That trick left me walkin' 3 times, so I'm not a very fast learner. There had been other times before that. One cost me a job interview, a couple of others cost me dates I really wanted to go on. Unless you just can't afford it, or can't get your hands on new parts new is the way to go. If my only choices are rebuilt or used from a wrecking yard, I'll take used. All of the parts I got used lasted at least a year, that is better than what I get out of reman/ rebuilt.
 
If the vehicle has high miles, and the exhaust runs down along the starter, check for a possible plugged or restricted catalytic converter. This will cause excessive heat build-up and kill starters over a short period of time or after a long drive.

This was fairly common with 70s-80s Ford passenger cars with inline 6-cyl engines.
 
Well, here we are in the spring of '11 and I got to put another starter on the F150 this morning. Luckily it's only been 9 months since I got the last one from the Ford dealer. Worked fine for those 9 months then last night all I got was a clunk. Tow truck driver tried to give me a jump, but that wasn't the problem. New starter works fine. When will this madness stop? I'm seriously considering putting an aftermarket high performance starter on from someone like Powermaster.
 
Squisher said:
If you told me to change the starter on a '98 F150 I bet you'd be surprised at how fast I was at it.

]
Click to expand...

i had similar experiences with my dodge truck. luckily, no jack needed. i can drop, scoot, spin the two bolts and disconnect the wires in 4 minutes flat.

and i would definitely look at a new/ different brand or supplier for your starters. we have 5 f150s here at work and none have had a starter changed out. they are well over 150k miles at this point as well. newer tho, may be the factor.
 
Squisher said:
Remember the last thread where I got a bum starter from Murray's, but it bench tested OK and some here thought I had a bad battery. Well, I installed a new battery (just to be on the safe side) and put the starter back on with dielectric grease on all the electrical connections and it worked fine for about a month.

Friday, the daughter goes to take it to work and it won't start just like last time. So, I figure I'm going to make my stand at Murray's and get a new starter. The guy there was super cool and gave me a new starter (unlike the beotch that tested it the last time) with no problem.

When I pulled the starter off in April, the bolts came out like mud. I looked at the bolts then and the bolts (I assume stainless) had picked up a thread and had some aluminum embedded in the threads. I cleaned the bolts with a thread file (it's nice having my work tools at home now that I'm retired) and have been using them since, but they still needed a ratchet to be put in and taken out. So, I threw some grease on them and got out my air ratchet (again a work tool) and worked them back and forth to loosen up the threads (no 8mm tap). Now, I go install the starter and the threads are stripped. I can only figure the bolts were stretched and I basically just smushed the threads out, but I was looking for chips and didn't see any. Oh well, back to the store to get some SS bolts, SS nuts and washers, luckily there was access for the nuts to fit on easily.

I get the starter on, attach the battery, and go to start it. Ziinggggggg, zinggggggg, zinggggg. Fuck! Take the starter back to Murrays' and they bench test it. Bad bendix.

Finally, put it on this morning and it started fine.

If you told me to change the starter on a '98 F150 I bet you'd be surprised at how fast I was at it.

*************************************************

Well, here we are in the spring of '11 and I got to put another starter on the F150 this morning. Luckily it's only been 9 months since I got the last one from the Ford dealer. When will this madness stop? I'm seriously considering putting an aftermarket high performance starter on from someone like Powermaster.
Click to expand...

My roommate and I had a similar experience with the alternator on his 2001 Explorer.

We bought a reman from autozone. When we installed it, the electrics were misbehaving, so we pulled the alt and took it to Autozone, where it benchtested fine.

Anyway, we bought a new battery and put the alt back in the car, which failed to fix the problem - by this time autozone was closed.

We went back the next day with his car (flickering like mad) and had them test the alt in car, where their tester said it was fine even as the headlights were flickering like strobe lights. We finally talked a replacement out of them - by this time it took us 5 minutes to pull the old alt and 5 minutes to put a new one in (which fixed the problem, but the autozone people still wouldn't admit that the first part was bad).

We also replaced the starter on that truck a while ago, and god, ford starters in the rustbelt are a pain in the ass to remove. The bolts have some thread that pokes through the bell housing into the elements, and then you are expected to back them out. It was crazy. Even after cleaning them up it was stalling my (el cheapo) air ratchet, and we just had to muscle them out.
 
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I had 3 "rebuilt" steering racks put in my GTP in the span of about 4 months before my car was totalled. Sometimes it just pays to buy new.
 
I've had similar starter issues but on my boats. I replaced the starters in both boats last Spring. One of them lasted only the summer and died just as the season ended. The other went fine but when I went to start the boat last weekend the starter sounded awful. It may just need some tightening, will look at it this weekend, but unfortunately it's not as easy to work on as your truck.
 
Is your F-150 an automatic? If so, check the flywheel. I had a flywheel crack around the bolts that hold it to the torque converter, which would make it flex while cranking the engine. I replaced 3 starters before the flywheel center snapped, wedged, and broke the starter nose off the 4th starter while cranking.
 
Cepak said:
Is your F-150 an automatic? If so, check the flywheel. I had a flywheel crack around the bolts that hold it to the torque converter, which would make it flex while cranking the engine. I replaced 3 starters before the flywheel center snapped, wedged, and broke the starter nose off the 4th starter while cranking.
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All the starters have shone no unusual wear on the drive gear. All just did nothing when I turned the key except for this last one which gave a clunk without turning it over. Previously, I'd been able to get the starter to function by banging on it, but both I and the tow truck driver beat on this one and all we got is a clunk.

I'm pretty sure I have an illegal exhaust. I don't see any cats except for the primaries way at the front of the exhaust. It could be a heat issue yet I don't think those primaries are plugged because I've had no drive-ability issues. If it is a heat issue a high performace starter will take care of the problem, they're made to function even when nestled by a header.
 
Are the connections to these starters good?
That seems unusual, although not uncommon for new/reman parts to fail. It happens. Just not normally one after another.
 
CraigRT said:
Are the connections to these starters good?
That seems unusual, although not uncommon for new/reman parts to fail. It happens. Just not normally one after another.
Click to expand...
After I had it towed home and before I started removing the old starter I was really hoping it was a connection. I re-squeezed on all the compression connectors and banged on all three wire connections (two hot, one ground) to get them to move a little, but that didn't help. When I put the thing together last year I had dielectric grease on everything. The tow truck driver even said after he tried banging on the starter, "boy everything looks really clean under there."
 
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