As some of you read in the off topic the other night I had problems with my starter. Well yesterday morning me and my dad went out and just tapped on the starter and everything was back to normal. Before when we thought that the starter went out you would go to turn it over and it would just click. It wasn't more then just one click. Kinda like the battery went dead, but it wasn't the battery. Like I said after me and my dad went out and tapped on the starter everything was back to normal and its running good again. My dad thinks that the starter just "frooze up" due to me going through lots of slush, snow, and ice and then that night that we thought the starter went out it was very cold. Do you guys think that this is possible that the starter just "frooze up" or whats your guys opinion?

 

the starter has a solenoid in it..it spins..you have a bad spot on it..so when its spinning if it lands on that spot you gotta "tap" it to get it off that bad spot..so if it gets off that spot it will crank fine..my guess is you need a new starter

 

yeah, we have that with all the tow trucks from time to time. Your starter may work fine for another 200 starts, or it may crap out on you the next time you start it.

 

My only thing is that we didn't tap on the solinoid.

 

Samantha,

You'll need a new starter soon. Usually, if tapping on it works, it's either worn out brushes or a stuck bendix.

You CAN replace the brushes if you can find them, I usually get them from places that rebuild alternators and starters. Take your old brushes with you for best match.

If the bendix (the gear that engages the flywheel) is sticking, you can clean and grease it.

Either job requires you to take the starter apart. Your best bet is a new starter. But it's more fun to tear it apart and try to fix it.

 

Earl....I'm a girl, taking apart a starter for me would me like a guy trying to curl his hair. LOL. I can work on the ranger, but the starter and taking it apart is another thing! I dunno what to do, I am planning a trip this weekend and everyone here thinks that I will be ok and that it just frooze. What to do???

 

I know your problem, it just happened to me the other day. Mess around with the positive wire going to the starter. Mine was really corroded and was hanging on by 1 little strand of wire. It would just "click" when I attemped to start it. Some times randomly it would start, but it totally didn't the other day. I tried moving the positive and negative wire terminals on the starter; the negative one is perfect, and when I touched the positive one it totally fell off. I had to hot wire the starter to get it started and drove it to a starter shop and had them put a new terminal on the power wire. I could have done it myself except i was at school and had no tools, and the positive wire is on the drivers' side of the starter and is INSANE hard to get to, especially with tools to take it off.

 

if it starts after hitting it then it is starting to go dead like has been said. its fine to take your trip with it the way it is, just bring a hammer with you and if it wont start hop under there and give it a couple licks and then go on your way. I would definitly recommend replacing it at some point though. I've gone through quite a few starters and this is what tends to happen. I buy mine from autozone now because they have a lifetime warranty so when i kill it i can go get another one for free. generally after about 150K miles they die out on me, I'm to the point where i can change it in about 15 minutes in an autozone parking lot. I can do that with my alternator too...

 

Does Ford still have the seperate solenoid? GMs and Toyota do not but Ford used to (ok that was in the 80s though)

If you go on your trip and your truck is stick, just be sure to park where you can roll it downhill also to pop start it

 

my moms 98 windstar had the seperated soleniod. I rebuilt a few of them this summer on our cars, if you were closer i would help you......................but you arent

 

as an ME and a weekend tinkerer, and (gasp) a girl, let me share with you that taking a starter apart isn’t necessarily harder than curling your hair.