Starter question

My Jeep was beginning to take a second to start. The starter motor would start to lag then turn over.

I pulled the starter and took it to a couple different parts stores for testing and at each test the starter engaged and tested good.

One of the parts guys suggested that maybe the connections were soiled and it wasn't getting a good electrical charge. I cleaned it all up and put dialectic grease on the connections and reinstalled.

It seemed to start ok last night after reinstalling, but today it took "whirred" and "coughed" a couple times before it caught.

So - first, could it be on its way out, but still good enough that it won't test bad and second, could I have reinstalled it wrong where it would make it whirr before catching.

I should note - the battery is about 18 month old and the alternator was put in over the summer. I have not had the battery tested.

Thoughts?

If it were me I would pull the starter out, pull the back and look at the brushes. If they still have a reasonable amount of life in them I would order a new solenoid. If the brushes are down to the nubbins I would order a new set (an assembly, mounted on the plate to which two of them are resistance welded).

if it whirred, then the bendix wasn't making contact with the ring gear. That could be due to reinstalling it slightly misaligned. I'd be willing to bet that you have a few teeth on the ring gear that will be slightly chewed and shiny.

Dielectric grease is a insulator. You should take the connections apart and clean them off with brake cleaner or the like.

Are your oil filter adapter seals leaking and filling the starter with oil?

cruiser54 said:

Are your oil filter adapter seals leaking and filling the starter with oil?

Click to expand...

wouldn't have thought of that

Wire brush all connections from battery to starter to start with, you need to see bare copper. Another thought could be the positive or negative battery cables make sure both are tight and clean. My son called me this week with a problem similar to yours I went to his house and looked at everything could see nothing but closer inspection found the positive cable to be barley holding by a few wires just inside the insulated cable below the connector. It looked good but was not when I felt it then split it down a little it could be seen.

Lot of different things it could be no real answers other than inspection.