Starter won't stop starting

[Devin]

During my adventures of getting the car running after some significant downtime, I replaced the starter and the fender mounted relay. After I fixed the no-start condition, I noticed that the car was starting differently. It was more energetic, but the starter would seem like it ran a fraction of a second longer than it should. I didn't mind it though until Sunday when I started it up in a grocery store parking lot and it wouldn't stop starting. After about two hectic minutes of keeping the car still and trying to avoid grinding the flywheel into dust the battery finally died and it stopped.

I took the key out during this fiasco and it did not prevent the starter from turning. All I can think of is either the starter is bad, the relay is bad or the ignition switch is bad. Any ideas?

 

[AREA 91]

Starter solenoid is junk. Been there, done that.

 

[Devin]

Hmm, hadn't heard of that happening before. So I'm guessing it is just a crap reman. Since I don't have the original one anymore, any suggestions on a brand that isn't crap?

 

[luigisho]

Not really. I had a local rebuild shop do my starter and they use the cheap Chinese junk parts in their units too. I would look for a Ford unit or go with NAPA after that I guess.

 

[shomethe$$$]

Also, make sure your power wire or terminal didn't get loose and contact solenoid wire or terminal. Should be some support on the solenoid to prevent the wire from doing that but still.

Before connecting the cars battery. Disconnect the solenoid power wire from the battery. Leave it somewhere where it won't ground. Disconnect the small wire on the fender mounted solenoid. Connect the battery. Now touch the power wire to the solenoid, if the starter engages and stays engaged, its the solenoid. You can try to tap on the solenoid housing to see if it will disengage. They do get stuck. If it doesn't engage, go to the next step.

Connect the power wire back to its original place on the solenoid. Take a screw driver and connect connect the power terminal on the solenoid to the small terminal that comes from the ignition switch. See if the starter engages and disengages as it should. Then its your wiring from the ignition switch. If it doesn't engage, then its the solenoid. You can also take both power wires off the solenoid and momentarily connect them just to see if the starter engages and disengages. Hopefully the starter engages and disengages and its just the solenoid.

 

[Dirk37]

Considering that before the incident it cranked a little longer than it should have, that sounds like the starter solenoid was beginning to stick.

Did the reman you have come with any sort of warranty? A lot of them do now a days and when you do get another one, definitely find one with a warranty/guarantee.

I personally try to stay away from reman's as much as possible. I work at an auto shop and we put a lot of reman starters in customers cars who want stuff done the cheapest way possible, even when advised against it. Within 1-2 years, about 40% of the people come back with the starter out again. Another 40% of them though will come in for other things, even 5 or 6 years after the starter was changed, and its still working perfectly. It seems like the quality control of the reman process is pretty bad which is why there's such a high failure rate. So far we've never had a new OEM starter come back in under 80k miles.

 

[Shovert]

Ditto. Get a Ford one. The auto parts one's are junk. Caused me a nightmare on my 89 Mustang. Presently running on a used Ford one. Have had a new Ford one in trunk just in case for long time. Save yourself a lot of problems get the Ford one.
On warranty. I got a "lifetime" warranty on my Mustang alternator. It went thru 4 of them. [One the pulley came off]. I now got a used 3G on it. It has lasted longer than all the "rebuilt" ones. PM me if want to know the supplier of my " rebuilt" junk. I want trash them on the forum. Maurice

 

[Bryan]

I had mine replaced as well. Got one from NAPA and it's still going strong even after all this terribly cold weather I've had here. Usually I shy away from the cheap auto parts store parts simply because they are for the most part cheap Chinese made parts.

 

[Devin]

I replaced mine and so far I haven't had that issue any more. I did have to replace the battery eventually though.